Lagrange Polynomial - Definition

Definition

Given a set of k + 1 data points

where no two are the same, the interpolation polynomial in the Lagrange form is a linear combination

of Lagrange basis polynomials

Note how, given the initial assumption that no two are the same, so this expression is always well-defined. The reason pairs with are not allowed is that no interpolation function such that would exist; a function can only get one value for each argument . On the other hand, if also, then those two points would actually be one single point.

For all, includes the term in the numerator, so the whole product will be zero at :

On the other hand,

In other words, all basis polynomials are zero at, except, because it lacks the term.

It follows that, so at each point, showing that interpolates the function exactly.

Read more about this topic:  Lagrange Polynomial

Famous quotes containing the word definition:

    ... if, as women, we accept a philosophy of history that asserts that women are by definition assimilated into the male universal, that we can understand our past through a male lens—if we are unaware that women even have a history—we live our lives similarly unanchored, drifting in response to a veering wind of myth and bias.
    Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)

    The physicians say, they are not materialists; but they are:MSpirit is matter reduced to an extreme thinness: O so thin!—But the definition of spiritual should be, that which is its own evidence. What notions do they attach to love! what to religion! One would not willingly pronounce these words in their hearing, and give them the occasion to profane them.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    It is very hard to give a just definition of love. The most we can say of it is this: that in the soul, it is a desire to rule; in the spirit, it is a sympathy; and in the body, it is but a hidden and subtle desire to possess—after many mysteries—what one loves.
    François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)