1.

1 Polynomials
CITY UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Polynomials have played an important role in approximation
theory and numerical analysis for many decades. They are
MNE4005 Finite Element Analysis also the basis for geometric design.
(Lecture Notes / Dr. W. Ma)

Polynomial Definition: A polynomial function p(t) of order k is

defined by
1. Polynomials and Spline Functions
k
Overview p(t )   ci t i 1
i 1
1.1 Polynomials

Polynomial Space where t  R is the parametric variable, ci for i=1, 2, ..., k are pre-
Bases of Polynomial Space defined constants.
Power Bases and Bernstein Bases

1.2 Spline functions Polynomial Space - A Family of Polynomials: By varying the

constants ci for i=1, 2, ..., k, we obtain a family of such
Why Splines polynomials. The dimension of this family is obviously k since
C 2 Spline there are k free coefficients that we can change for defining
Features of Spline Functions such a polynomial function.
1.3 Spline Curves and Surfaces We call this family of polynomials a polynomial space.

1. Polynomials and Spline Functions 7 1. Polynomials and Spline Functions 8

Dimension of Polynomial Space: Let us denote Pk as the space Bases Functions of Polynomials: To explain the last point, we
of polynomials of order k, i.e., rewrite the polynomial function as follows:
k
p(t )   ci Bi (t )
 k  i 1
Pk   p(t ) : p(t )   cit i 1 for c1 , c2 ,..., ck , t  R 
 i 1 
where, Bi (t )  t i 1 for i  1,2,..., k ,
i.e., the polynomial p(t ) is a linear combination of
then, we have dim ( Pk ) = k. 
k independent functions  Bi (t )ik1 = 1 t 1 t 2 ... t k 1 . 
These functions are called
Properties of Polynomials: Polynomials have some very the bases of the polynomial space Pk .
attractive features. Following are some of the important ones:
These are very convenient bases for manipulation and
 Polynomials are smooth functions and are easy to store, evaluation. A generalization of these bases functions are
manipulate and evaluate on a digital computer.
Bi' (t )i 1 1 
... (t  a ) k 1
k
= (t  a ) 1 (t  a ) 2
 The derivative and integral of polynomials are again
polynomials whose coefficients can be found easily.
where a can be any real value. These bases are called the
 Pk is a finite dimensional linear space with a convenient power bases of k . There are also many other bases.
bases.
Example: Compare a point in 3-dimensional Euclidean space
and a polynomial in polynomial space.

A point in 3D Euclidean space is defined by its three

coordinates

p  R 3  xn 1  yn 2  zn 3

where n1, n2 and n3 are the unit vectors of the x-, y- and z-axis.
The unit vectors n1, n2 and n3 are called the normalized bases
of the 3-dimensional Euclidean space.

1. Polynomials and Spline Functions 9 1. Polynomials and Spline Functions 10

 One can convert among these different bases.
For examples, if
k
p(t )   ci Bi (t )
i 1

where,  Bi (t )ik1 = 1 t1 t2 
... t k 1 , there exists a unique set
of coefficients  
k
di i 1 such that

k
p(t )   di Bi' (t )
i 1

where,  Bi' (t )
k
i 1
= 1 (t  a ) 1 (t  a ) 2 
... (t  a ) k 1 .

To convert from bases  Bi' (t )

k
to  Bi (t ) ik1, one can simply
i 1
expand
(t  a)i to the power of t. In the example of next page, we
illustrate how to convert from bases  Bi (t ) i 1 to Bi' (t ) .
k k
i 1

1. Polynomials and Spline Functions 11 1. Polynomials and Spline Functions 12

Example: given p( t )  5  5t  2t 2  t 3 and a=1, The Bernstein Bases: Bernstein Bases is one of the famous
k bases for polynomial functions. The Bézier curves and
find di i 1 such that, p ( t )   d i Bi' (t ) .
k
commonly used in CAD/CAM systems are defined using these
i 1 bases.

k
Definition: Bernstein Bases are defined as:
Solution: By setting t=1 to equation p (t )   di Bi' (t ) ,
Bi (t )    t i 1  t 
i 1 n n i
we obtain d1 = 3. i

Similarly, where

d d  k   n  n!
by setting t=1 to  
p ( t )    d i B i ( t ) ,
'
we obtain d 2 =2,  i  i !(n  i)!
.
dt dt  i 1 
d2 d2  k 
by setting t=1 to  p ( t )  2   d i B i ( t )
'
, we obtain d3  5,
dt 2
dt  i 1  With these basis, a Bernstein function (or Bézier function)
and can be defined as:
d3 d3  k 
by setting t=1 to  p ( t )  3   d i B i ( t )
'
, we obtain d 4 = 1. n k
dt 3
dt  i 1  p(t )   ci Bi (t )   c'j B 'j (t )
i 0 j 1

Thus, we have
Following figures illustrate how the power bases and Bernstein
p(t )  3  2(t  1)  5(t  1)2  (t  1)3 bases look like.

i.e., di i 1 = {3, 2, 5, 1}.

k
Ma94 Fig. 3.1 pp44.

1. Polynomials and Spline Functions 13 1. Polynomials and Spline Functions 14

 Example: Conversion from Bernstein bases
to the power bases and vise versa are also possible.
Let n=k-1=3, and p( t )  5  5t  2t 2  t 3
compute the Bernstein representation.

Solution: Let us assume

n
p(t )   ci Bi (t )
i 0

where Bi (t )    t i 1  t  .
n n i
i

By setting t = 0.0, 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, we obtain

  3
   c0  5
  0
  3
   c3  3
 3
 3
  2 0   1 3 c  3 1
    2   1 c1
2  3 2
    2   1 c 2
1  3 3
    2   1 c3
0
 11
 0 0
 1  2  3
 3  3 1  3 2  3 3
  3 0   2 3 c 0    3   2 c1
2
   3   2 c 2
1
   3   2 c3
0
 35
 0  1  2  3

or in matrix form:
1 0 0 0 c0  5
0 0 0 1  c  3
    1   
  1 6  12 8  c2  11
     
 8 36  54 27  c3  35

Solving these linear equations, we obtain

ci 3i 0  5, 10

,
7
,

3 .
 3 3 

1. Polynomials and Spline Functions 15 1. Polynomials and Spline Functions 16

Polynomial function:can be any function represented as
polynomials.
Polynomial curve: is a (or a set of) polynomial function(s)
with one parameter variable. It can be
1D (a curve in parametric space),
2D (planer curve), or
3D (3D curve).
Polynomial surface: is a set of polynomial functions with
two parameter variables. It is usually
in 3D Euclidean space.
1. Polynomials and Spline Functions 17
1.2 Spline functions
Why Splines:
Although polynomials have many attractive features,
they have one unfortunate problem, i.e., many approximation
processes involving polynomials tend to produce polynomial
approximations that oscillate wildly especially for high orders.
This feature is depicted as a kind of inflexibility of the class k .
It however observed that polynomials work well for sufficiently
small intervals and lower order.
This observation suggests that in order to achieve a class of
approximation with greater flexibility, we should work with
polynomials of relatively lower orders, and should divide up the
interval of interest into smaller pieces. This leads to the use of
piecewise polynomials for approximation, i.e.,
 for a given interval [a,b], we do not use a single
polynomial for the complete interval;
 we would subdivide the interval [a,b] into smaller intervals
[1,  2 ), [ 2 ,  3), ..., [ l 1,  l ], where a  1   2 ...   l 1   l  b ;
 for each subinterval, we use one polynomial.
While we have gained flexibility by switching from polynomials
to piecewise polynomials, at the same time we lost another
important property, i.e., piecewise polynomials are not
necessarily smooth over the entire interval of [a,b].
1. Polynomials and Spline Functions 18
 Spline Functions:

In order to maintain the flexibility of piecewise polynomials

while at the same time achieving some degree of global
smoothness, we may define a class or family of functions with
varying degree of smoothness between the pieces.

We refer to such functions as polynomial splines or spline

functions.

 C 0 spline: A C 0 spline is functional continuous in (a, b).

The continuity of tangent vector is not guaranteed.

 C1 spline: A C1 spline implies that the spline function has

continuous first derivative at all the internal notes  i for
1<i<l. This means that a C1 spline is tangently continuous
everywhere in (a, b).

 C 2 spline: A C 2 spline has continuous second derivative

everywhere in (a, b).

 etc.

1. Polynomials and Spline Functions 19 1. Polynomials and Spline Functions 20

Features of Spline Functions 1.3 Spline Curves and Surfaces

Spline functions have also many attractive features. The All polynomials and spline functions can be used to define 3-
following ones are very important for geometric modelling: dimensional curves and surfaces.

 Polynomial splines are relatively smooth functions If, e.g.,

 Polynomial splines are easy to store, manipulate and x = x(t)

evaluate on a digital computer. y = y(t)
z = z(t)
 The derivative and integral of polynomial splines are
again polynomial splines whose coefficients can be found are spline functions defined for interval [a, b].
easily.
 Low-order splines are very flexible, and don't exhibit the p(t) = x(t)i + y(t)j + z(t)k
oscillations usually associated with polynomials.
then defines a curve in 3D space in the same domain.
 Every continuous function on the interval [a, b] can be
approximated arbitrarily well by polynomial splines with Or we can simply write
fixed order k, provided a sufficient number of knots are
p   x (t ), y (t ), z (t )
T
employed.

Similarly, one can also define spline surfaces in 3D space as

p   x (u, v ), y (u, v ), z (u, v )

T
Univariate Splines: Spline functions with one parameter
variables are also called univariate splines.

Multivariate Splines:Spline functions with two or more

Spline curves: Spline curves either in 1-dimension,
parameter variables are also called
2-dimension (planar curves), or 3-
multivariate splines.
dimension are univariate splines.
Spline Curves and Surfaces.
Spline surfaces: Spline surfaces in 3-dimensional space
are multivariate splines.

1. Polynomials and Spline Functions 21 1. Polynomials and Spline Functions 22