Lecture -3

i. Newton-Gregory backward difference formula:

Here f  xs   f s  E f 0 
s
1    
1 s
f 0  1   
s
f0

Expanding binomially, we get

s  s  1 2 s  s  1 s  2  3
f s  f0  s  f0   f0   f 0  ...  , | s |  1 …(2)
2! 3!
This is known as Newton’s backward difference formula (N. Bw) for equal intervals or
Newton-Gregory backward difference formula.
s  s  1 s  2  ...  s  n 
Error term of the formula: h  n 1 f  n 1   , x0    xn
 n  1!
Note: This formula is generally used when the value to be interpolated is near the end
of the data table.

Example: Given
x : 3 4 5 6 7 8
f(x) : 27 64 125 216 343 512. Estimate (7.5).

Solution: The difference table of the given data is as follows :

 As xs  7.5 lies almost in the end of data table hence using Newton’s backward
formula.
8  7.5
Now, for xs  7.5 , let x0  8 , so xs  x0  sh  h  0.5
1
Substituting s = 0.5 and using the values of various order differences lying along the
backward sloped line through x0  8 in N. Bw formula (2), we get

 0.5    0.5  1  0.5    0.5  1  0.5  2

f  7.5  512    0.5 169   42  6 0
2 6
= 512 – 84.5 – 5.25 – 0.375 = 421.875 (Approx.)

Note: As we have seen that Newton’s forward difference formula gives better result when xs
lies in the beginning of the data table. Similarly, Newton’s backward difference formula is best
suited when xs lies in the end of data table. Then, it can be seen that for those values of xs ,
which lie almost in the middle of the data table neither N.Fw or N.Bw retains sufficient number
of terms in the formula and thus the interpolated value will not be sufficiently accurate. To
overcome this problem we derive two more formulae named as Stirling's formula and Bessel’s
formula. More commonly Stirling's formula is termed as central difference formula.