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In mathematics, divided differences is an algorithm, historically used for computing tables of logarithms and trigonometric functions. [citation needed] Charles Babbage's difference engine, an early mechanical calculator, was designed to use this algorithm in its operation. [1] Divided differences is a recursive division process.
The simplest method is to use finite difference approximations. A simple two-point estimation is to compute the slope of a nearby secant line through the points (x, f(x)) and (x + h, f(x + h)). [1] Choosing a small number h, h represents a small change in x, and it can be either positive or negative.
An infinite series of any rational function of can be reduced to a finite series of polygamma functions, by use of partial fraction decomposition, [8] as explained here. This fact can also be applied to finite series of rational functions, allowing the result to be computed in constant time even when the series contains a large number of terms.
Given n + 1 points, there is a unique polynomial of degree ≤ n which goes through the given points. Neville's algorithm evaluates this polynomial. Neville's algorithm evaluates this polynomial. Neville's algorithm is based on the Newton form of the interpolating polynomial and the recursion relation for the divided differences .
For example, given a = f(x) = a 0 x 0 + a 1 x 1 + ··· and b = g(x) = b 0 x 0 + b 1 x 1 + ···, the product ab is a specific value of W(x) = f(x)g(x). One may easily find points along W ( x ) at small values of x , and interpolation based on those points will yield the terms of W ( x ) and the specific product ab .
In an analogous way, one can obtain finite difference approximations to higher order derivatives and differential operators. For example, by using the above central difference formula for f ′(x + h / 2 ) and f ′(x − h / 2 ) and applying a central difference formula for the derivative of f ′ at x, we obtain the central difference approximation of the second derivative of f:
For example, the following algorithm is a direct implementation to compute the function A(x) = (x−1) / (exp(x−1) − 1) which is well-conditioned at 1.0, [nb 12] however it can be shown to be numerically unstable and lose up to half the significant digits carried by the arithmetic when computed near 1.0.
As an illustration of this, the parity cycle (1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0) and its sub-cycle (1 1 0 0) are associated to the same fraction 5 / 7 when reduced to lowest terms. In this context, assuming the validity of the Collatz conjecture implies that (1 0) and (0 1) are the only parity cycles generated by positive whole numbers (1 and 2 ...