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4
FINITE DIFFERENCES OPERATORS

For a function y=f(x), it is given that y0 , y1 ,..., yn are the values of the variable y
corresponding to the equidistant arguments, x0 , x1 ,..., xn , where
x1  x0  h, x2  x0  2h, x3  x0  3h,..., xn  x0  nh . In this case, even though Lagrange and
divided difference interpolation polynomials can be used for interpolation, some simpler
interpolation formulas can be derived. For this, we have to be familiar with some finite
difference operators and finite differences, which were introduced by Sir Isaac Newton.
Finite differences deal with the changes that take place in the value of a function f(x) due
to finite changes in x. Finite difference operators include, forward difference operator,
backward difference operator, shift operator, central difference operator and mean
operator.

 Forward difference operator (  ) :

For the values y0 , y1 ,..., yn of a function y=f(x), for the equidistant values x0 , x1 , x2 ,..., xn ,
where x1  x0  h, x2  x0  2h, x3  x0  3h,..., xn  x0  nh , the forward difference operator  is
defined on the function f(x) as,

f  xi   f  xi  h  f  xi   f  xi 1   f  xi 

That is,

yi  yi1  yi

Then, in particular

f  x0   f  x0  h   f  x0   f  x1   f  x0 
 y0  y1  y0

f  x1   f  x1  h   f  x1   f  x2   f  x1 
 y1  y2  y1

etc.,

y0 , y1 ,..., yi ,... are known as the first forward differences.

The second forward differences are defined as,

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 2 f  xi    
 f  xi      f  xi  h   f  xi 
 f  xi  h   f  xi 
 f  xi  2h   f  xi  h    f  xi  h   f  xi 
 f  xi  2h   2 f  xi  h   f  xi 
 yi  2  2 yi 1  yi

In particular,

 2 f  x0   y2  2 y1  y0 or  2 y0  y2  2 y1  y0

The third forward differences are,

 
3 f  xi     2 f  xi  
 
    

  f  xi  2h 2 f  xi  h  f  xi  
      

y  3y  3 y  yi
i 3 i2 i 1

In particular,
 3 f  x0   y3  3 y2  3 y1  y0 or  3 y0  y3  3 y2  3 y1  y0

In general the nth forward difference,

 n f  xi    n 1 f  xi  h    n 1 f  xi 

The differences y0 ,  2 y0 , 3 y0 .... are called the leading differences.

Forward differences can be written in a tabular form as follows:

x y y 2 y 3 y

x0 y0  f ( xo )

y0  y1  y0

x1 y1  f ( x1 )  2 y0  y1  y0
y1  y2  y1 3 y0   2 y1   2 y0

x2 y 2  f ( x2 )  2 y1  y2  y1
y2  y3  y2

x3 y3  f ( x3 )

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Example Construct the forward difference table for the following x values and its
corresponding f values.

x 0.1 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9 1.1 1.3

f 0.003 0.067 0.148 0.248 0.370 0.518 0.697

x f f 2f 3f 4f 5f

0.1 0.003
0.064
0.3 0.067 0.017
0.081 0.002
0.5 0.148 0.019 0.001
0.100 0.003 0.000
0.7 0.248 0.022 0.001
0.122 0.004 0.000
0.9 0.370 0.026 0.001
0.148 0.005
1.1 0.518 0.031
0.179
1.3 0.697

1
Example Construct the forward difference table, where f ( x)  , x = 1(0.2)2, 4D.
x

f 2f
1
f ( x)  first second
x x 3f 4f 5f
differe differe
nce nce

1.0 1.000
-0.1667
1.2 0.8333 0.0477
-0.1190 -0.0180
1.4 0.7143 0.0297 0.0082 -0.0045
-0.0893 -0.0098
1.6 0.6250 0.0199 0.0037
-0.0694 -0.0061
1.8 0.5556 0.0138
-0.0556
2.0 0.5000

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Example Construct the forward difference table for the data

x: 2 0 2 4
y  f ( x) : 4 9 17 22

The forward difference table is as follows:

x y=f(x) y 2 y 3 y
-2 4
y0 =5
0 9  2 y0 =3
y1 =8 3 y0 =-6
2 17  2 y1 =-3
y2 =5
4 22

Properties of Forward difference operator (  ):

(i) Forward difference of a constant function is zero.

Proof: Consider the constant function f ( x)  k

Then, f ( x)  f ( x  h)  f ( x)  k  k  0

(ii) For the functions f ( x) and g ( x) ;   f ( x)  g ( x)   f ( x)  g ( x)

Proof: By definition,

  f ( x)  g ( x)     ( f  g )( x) 
 ( f  g )( x  h)  ( f  g )( x)
 f ( x  h)  g ( x  h)   f ( x )  g ( x ) 
 f ( x  h)  f ( x )  g ( x  h)  g ( x )
 f ( x)  g ( x)

(iii)Proceeding as in (ii), for the constants a and b,

  af ( x)  bg ( x)   af ( x)  bg ( x) .

(iv)Forward difference of the product of two functions is given by,

  f ( x) g ( x)   f ( x  h)g ( x)  g ( x)f ( x)

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Proof:

  f ( x) g ( x)     ( fg )( x) 
 ( fg )( x  h)  ( fg )( x)
 f ( x  h) g ( x  h)  f ( x ) g ( x )

Adding and subtracting f ( x  h) g ( x) , the above gives

  f ( x ) g ( x )   f ( x  h) g ( x  h)  f ( x  h) g ( x )  f ( x  h) g ( x )  f ( x ) g ( x )

 f ( x  h)  g ( x  h)  g ( x )   g ( x )  f ( x  h)  f ( x ) 
 f ( x  h)g ( x)  g ( x)f ( x)

Note : Adding and subtracting g ( x  h) f ( x) instead of f ( x  h) g ( x) , it can also be

proved that

  f ( x) g ( x)   g ( x  h)f ( x)  f ( x)g ( x)

(v) Forward difference of the quotient of two functions is given by

 f ( x )  g ( x ) f ( x )  f ( x )  g ( x )
 
 g ( x)  g ( x  h) g ( x )

Proof:

 f ( x)  f ( x  h) f ( x)
  
 g ( x)  g ( x  h) g ( x)
f ( x  h) g ( x)  f ( x) g ( x  h)

g ( x  h) g ( x)
f ( x  h) g ( x)  f ( x) g ( x)  f ( x) g ( x)  f ( x) g ( x  h)

g ( x  h) g ( x)

g ( x )  f ( x  h)  f ( x )   f ( x )  g ( x  h)  g ( x ) 

g ( x  h) g ( x )

g ( x)f ( x)  f ( x)g ( x)

g ( x  h) g ( x )

Following are some results on forward differences:

Result 1: The nth forward difference of a polynomial of degree n is constant when the
values of the independent variable are at equal intervals.

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Result 2: If n is an integer,
f (a  nh)  f (a)  nC1f (a)  nC2  2 f (a)     n f (a)

for the polynomial f(x) in x.

Forward Difference Table
x f f 2f 3f 4f 5f 6f
x0 f0
x1 f1 f0 2f0
3f0
x2 f2 f1 2f2 4f0
3f1 5f0
x3 f3 f2 2f2 4f1 6f0
3f2 5f1
x4 f4 f3 2f3 4f2
3f3
x5 f5 f4 2f4
f5
x6 f6

Exa mp le Express 2 f 0 and 3 f 0 in terms of the values of the function f.

 
2 f 0  f1  f 0  f 2  f1  f1  f 0  f 2  2 f1  f 0


3 f 0  2 f1  2 f 0  f 2  f1  f1  f 0 
  
 f f  f f  f f  f f
3 2 2 1 2 1 1 0    
 f 3f 3f  f
3 2 1 0
In general,

n f  f  nC f  nC f  nC f  ...  ( 1) n f .
0 n 1 n 1 2 n2 3 n3 0
If we write yn to denote fn the above results takes the following forms:

2 y 0  y 2  2 y1  y 0

3 y 0  y3  3 y 2  3 y1  y 0

n y 0  y n  n C1 y n  1  n C 2 y n  2  n C3 y n  3  . . .  ( 1) n y 0

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Exa mp le Show that the value of yn can be expressed in terms of the leading value y0
and the leading differences y 0 , 2 y 0 , . . . , n y 0 .

Solution
(For notational convenience, we treat yn as fn and so on.)
From the forward difference table we have

f 0  f1  f 0 or f1  f 0  f 0 

f1  f 2  f1 or f 2  f1  f1 
f 2  f 3  f 2 or f 3  f 2  f 2 


and so on. Similarly,

 2 f 0  f1  f 0 or f1  f 0   2 f 0 

 f1  f 2  f1 or f 2  f1   f1
2 2


and so on. Similarly, we can write

 3 f 0   2 f1   2 f 0 or  2 f1   2 f 0   3 f 0 

 3 f1   2 f 2   2 f1 or  2 f 2   2 f1   3 f1 

and so on. Also, we can write f 2 as

f 2   f 0  f 0     f 0   2 f 0 
 f 0  2 f 0   2 f 0
 (1   ) 2 f 0

Hence
f3  f 2  f 2

  f1  f1   f 0  2 2 f 0   3 f 0

 f 0  3f 0  32 f 0  3 f 0

 1    f 0
3

That is, we can symbolically write

f1  1    f 0 , f 2  1   2 f 0 , f 3  1   3 f 0 .

Continuing this procedure, we can show, in general

f n  1   n f 0 .

Using binomial expansion, the above is

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f n  f 0  nC1f 0  n C 2 2 f 0  . . .  n f 0

Thus
n
f n   nCi  i f 0 .
i0

Backward Difference Operator

For the values y0 , y1 ,..., yn of a function y=f(x), for the equidistant values x0 , x1 ,..., xn , where
x1  x0  h, x2  x0  2h, x3  x0  3h,..., xn  x0  nh , the backward difference operator  is defined
on the function f(x) as,
f  xi   f  xi )  f ( xi  h   yi  yi 1 ,

which is the first backward difference.

In particular, we have the first backward differences,
f  x1   y1  y0 ; f  x2   y2  y1 etc

The second backward difference is given by

 2 f  xi     f  xi      f  xi )  f ( xi  h   f  xi   f  xi  h 
  f  xi )  f ( xi  h     f  xi  h)  f ( xi  2h 
  yi  yi 1    yi 1  yi  2 
 yi  2 yi 1  yi  2

Similarly, the third backward difference, 3 f  xi   yi  3 yi 1  3 yi  2  yi 3 and so on.

Backward differences can be written in a tabular form as follows:

Y y 2 y 3 y
x
xo y0  f ( xo )
y1  y1  y0

x1 y1  f ( x1 )  2 y2  y2  y1
y2  y2  y1 3 y3   2 y3   2 y2

x2 y 2  f ( x2 )  2 y3  y3  y2
y3  y3  y2

x3 y3  f ( x3 )

Relation between backward difference and other differences:

1. y0  y1  y0  y1 ;  2 y0  y2  2 y1  y0   2 y2 etc.

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2.     
Proof: Consider the function f(x).
f ( x)  f ( x  h)  f ( x)
f ( x)  f ( x)  f ( x  h)

     ( f ( x))  f ( x)  f ( x)
  f ( x  h)  f ( x )    f ( x )  f ( x  h) 
 f ( x)  f ( x  h)
   f ( x )  f ( x  h) 
   f ( x ) 
     

3.   E 1
Proof: Consider the function f(x).
f ( x)  f ( x)  f ( x  h)  f ( x  h)  E 1 f ( x)    E 1

4.   1  E 1
Proof: Consider the function f(x).
f ( x)  f ( x)  f ( x  h)  f ( x)  E 1 f ( x)  1  E 1  f ( x)    1  E 1

Problem: Construct the backward difference table for the data

x: 2 0 2 4
y  f ( x) :  8 3 1 12

Solution: The backward difference table is as follows:

x Y=f(x) y 2 y 3 y

-2 -8
y1 =3-(-8)=11
0 3 2 y2 =-2-11= -13

y2 =1-3=-2 3 y3 =13-(-13)=26

2 1 2 y3 =11-(2)=13
y3 =12-1=11
4 12

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Backward Difference Table

x f f 2f 3f 4f 5f 6f
x0 f0
x1 f1 f1 2f2
3f3
x2 f2 f2 2f3 4f4 5f
3f4 5
x3 f3 f3 2f4 4f5 6f6
f4 3f5 5f
x4 f4 2f5 4f6 6
f5 3f6
x5 f5 2f6
f6
x6 f6

Example Show that any value of f (or y) can be expressed in terms of fn (or yn ) and its
backward differences.
Solution
f n  f n  f n1 implies f n 1  f n  f n

and f n 1  f n 1  f n  2 implies f n  2  f n1  f n1

 2 f n  f n  f n 1 implies f n 1   f n   2 f n

From equations (1) to (3), we obtain

f n  2  f n  2f n   2 f n .

Similarly, we can show that

f n  3  f n  3f n  3 2 f n   3 f n .

Symbolically, these results can be rewritten as follows:

f n 1  1    f n , f n  2  1   2 f n , f n  3  1   3 f n .

Thus, in general, we can write

f n  r  1   r f n .

i.e., f n  r  f n  r C1 f n  r C2  2 f n  . . .  (1) r  r f n

If we write yn to denote fn the above result is:

yn  r  yn  r C1 yn  r C2  2 yn  . . .  (1) r  r yn

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Centr al Dif f er en c es
Central difference operator  for a function f(x) at xi is defined as,

 f ( xi )  f  xi    f  xi   , where h being the interval of differencing.

h h
 2  2

Let y 1  f  x0  h  . Then,
2  2

 y 1   f  x0    f  x0     f  x0   
h h h h h
2  2   2 2   2 2
 f  x0  h   f  x0   f  x1   f  x0   y1  y0
  y 1  y0
2

Central differences can be written in a tabular form as follows:

x y y 2y 3y

xo y0  f ( xo )
 y 1  y1  y0
2

x1 y1  f ( x1 )  2 y1   y 3   y 1
2 2
 3 y 3   2 y2   2 y1
 y 3  y2  y1 2

x2 y 2  f ( x2 ) 2

 2 y2   y 5   y 3
2 2

 y 5  y3  y2
x3 y3  f ( x3 ) 2

Central Difference Table

x f f 2f 3f 4f

x0 f0

x1 f1 f1/2 2f1
3f3/2
x2 f2 f3/2 2f2 4f2
3f5/2
x3 f3 f5/2 2f3

f7/2
x4 f4

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Example Show that

(a)  2 f m  f  2 fm  f
m1 m 1

(b)  3 f f 3f  3f f
m2 m1 m 1
m1 m
2

2
(a)  fmfm1/2 fm1/2 ( fm1 fm)( fm fm1)

 f  2 fm  f
m 1 m 1

(b) 3 fm1/2 2 fm1 2 fm  f

m 2 
2f f 
m1 m 
 fm 1  2 fm  fm 1  fm2  3fm1  3fm  fm1
Shift operator, E

Let y = f (x) be a function of x, and let x takes the consecutive values x, x + h, x + 2h, etc.
We then define an operator E, called the shift operator having the property

E f(x) = f (x + h) …(1)

Thus, when E operates on f (x), the result is the next value of the function. If we apply the
operator twice on f (x), we get

E2 f (x) = E [E f (x)] = f (x+ 2h).

Thus, in general, if we apply the shift operator n times on f (x), we arrive at

E n f (x) = f (x+ nh) …(2)

for all real values of n.

If f0 (= y0), f1 (= y1)… are the consecutive values of the function

y = f (x), then we can also write

E f0 = f1 (or E y0 = y1), E f1 = f2 (or E y1 = y2)…

E2f0 = f2 (or E 2y0 = y2), E 2 f1 = f3 (or E y1 = y3)…

E3f0 = f3 (or E 2y0 = y3), E 3 f1 = f4 (or E y1 = y4)…

and so on. The inverse operator E1 is defined as:

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E1 f(x) = f (x  h) …(3)

and similarly

En f(x) = f (x  nh) …(4)

Average Operator 

The average operator  is defined as

 f  x   1  f ( x  h2 )  f ( x  h2 ) 
2

Differential operator D

The differential operator D has the property

Df ( x)  d f ( x)  f ( x)
dx

2
D 2 f ( x)  d 2 f ( x)  f ( x)
dx

Relations between the operators:

Operators,,, and D in terms of E

From the definition of operators  and E, we have

 f (x) = f (x + h)  f (x) = E f (x)  f (x) = (E  1) f (x).

Therefore,

=E1

From the definition of operators  and E  1, we have

 f (x) = f (x)  f (x  h) = f (x)  E  1f (x) = (1  E  1) f (x).

Therefore,

E 1
  1  E 1  .
E

The definition of the operators  and E gives

f (x) = f (x + h/2)  f (x  h/2) = E 1/2f (x)  E  1/2f (x)

= (E 1/2  E  1/2) f (x).

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Therefore,
 = E 1/2  E  1/2
The definition of the operators  and E yields

1 h  1
f  x    f  x    f  x      E1/ 2  E 1/ 2  f  x  .
h
2  2  2  2

Therefore,


2
 E  E 1/ 2 .
1 1/ 2

It is known that
E f (x) = f (x + h).
Using the Taylor series expansion, we have
2
Ef  x   f  x   h f   x   f  x  . . .
h 
2!

h2 2
 f  x   h Df  x   D  x  . . .
2!

 h D h2 D2 
 1    . . .  f  x   e hD f  x  .
 1! 2! 

Thus E  e hD . Or,
hD = log E.

Example If , ,  denote forward, backward and central difference operators, E and 

respectively the shift operator and average operators, in the analysis of data with equal
spacing h, prove the following:
2
 2  
(i ) 1   2  2  1    ii  E1/ 2   
 2  2
2
 iii      1   2 / 4 
2
1
 iv    E2 

2
 v     2  .

Solution

(i) From the definition of operators, we have

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 
2
 E  E 1/ 2  E1/ 2  E 1/ 2   12  E  E 1  .
1 1/ 2

Therefore


1 2
E  2  E 2    E  E 1 
1 2
1   2 2  1 
4 4

Also,
2
 1   E1/ 2  E 1/ 2    E  E 1 
1 2 1
1
2 2 2
From equations (1) and (2), we get
2
 2 
1  2 2  1   .
 2

(ii)     1  E1/ 2  E 1/ 2  E1/ 2  E 1/ 2   E1/ 2 .

2 2

(iii) We can write

E  E 1/ 2 
1/ 2 2
2
  1   2 / 4     E1/ 2  E 1/ 2  1   E  E 1/ 2 
1 1/ 2 2

2 2 4

E  2  E 1 1 1/ 2
   E  E 1/ 2  E1/ 2  E 1/ 2 
2 2

E  2  E 1 E  E 1
 
2 2

=E 1
=
(iv) We write

 
2
 E  E 1/ 2  E1/ 2  E 1/ 2   12  E  E 1 
1 1/ 2


1
2
1    E 1   2  12 1  E 1   2  12  EE 1   2  2E .
(v) We can write

 
2
 E  E 1/ 2  E1/ 2  E 1/ 2   12  E  E 1 
1 1/ 2


1
2
1    1      12      .

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Example Prove that

hD  log 1      log 1     sinh 1    .

Using the standard relations given in boxes in the last section, we have
hD  log E  log 1     log E   log E 1   log 1   

Also,

 
2
 E  E 1/ 2  E1/ 2  E 1/ 2   12  E  E 1 
1 1/ 2


2
 e  e hD   sin  hD 
1 hD

Therefore

hD  sinh 1 .

Example Show that the operations  and E commute.

Solution
From the definition of operators  and E , we have

Ef 0  f1 
1
f  f 
2 3/ 2 1/ 2

and also

E  f1/ 2  f 1/ 2    f 3/ 2  f1/ 2 

1 1
Ef 0 
2 2

Hence
E  E .

Therefore, the operators  and E commute.

Example Show that

 x2  x2
ex  u0  xu0  2u0  ...  u0  u1x  u2  ...
 2!  2!

 x2 2  x x22 
e  u0  xu0   u0  ...  e 1 x
x
 ... u0
 2!   2! 

 exexu0  ex(1)u0

 exEu0

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 x2 E 2 
  1  xE   ...  u0
 2! 

x2
 u0  xu1  u  ...,
2! 2
as desired.
Example Using the method of separation of symbols, show that

n(n  1)
 nu x  n  u x  nu x 1  u x  2    (1) n u x  n .
2
To prove this result, we start with the right-hand side. Thus,

n(n  1)
R.H.S  u x  nu x 1  u x  2    (1) n u x  n .
2
n(n  1) 2
 u x  nE 1u x  E u x    (1) n E  nu x
2

 n(n  1) 2 
 1  nE 1  E    (1) n E  n  u x
 2 

 1  E 1  u x
n

n
  1   u x
1
 E 

E 1 
n
   ux
 E 

n
 ux
En

  n E  nu x

  nu x n ,

= L.H.S
Differences of a Polynomial
Let us consider the polynomial of degree n in the form
f ( x )  a0 x n  a1 x n 1  a2 x n  2  . . .  an 1 x  an ,

where a0  0 and a0 , a1 , a2 , . . . , an 1 , an are constants. Let h be the interval of differencing.

Then

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f ( x  h )  a0 ( x  h ) n  a1 ( x  h ) n 1  a2 ( x  h ) n  2  ...  an 1 ( x  h)  an

Now the difference of the polynomials is:

f ( x)  f ( x  h)  f ( x)  a0 ( x  h) n  x n   a1  ( x  h) n 1  x n 1   ...  an 1 ( x  h  x )

Binomial expansion yields


f  x   a 0 x n  n C1 x n 1h  n C 2 x n  2 h 2  . . .  h n  x n 
 n 1  n 1
 a1[ x n 1  C1 x n  2 h  C2 x n  3 h 2

 . . .  h n 1  x n 1 ]  . . .  an 1h

 
 a 0 nhx n 1  a 0 n C 2 h 2  a1 n 1C1h x n  2  . . .  a n 1h .

Therefore,

f  x   a 0 nhx n 1  b  x n  2  c  x n 3  . . .  k x  l  ,

where b, c, . . . , k, l are constants involving h but not x. Thus, the first difference of
a polynomial of degree n is another polynomial of degree (n  1). Similarly,

2 f  x    f  x   f  x  h   f  x 

 a0 nh  x  h   x n 1   b  x  h   x n  2 
n 1 n2
   

 . . .  k x  h  x

On simplification, it reduces to the form

2 f  x   a 0 nn  1h 2 x n  2  b x n 3  c x n  4  . . .  q  .

Therefore, 2 f  x  is a polynomial of degree (n  2) in x. Similarly, we can form the

higher order differences, and every time we observe that the degree of the polynomial is
reduced by 1. After differencing n times, we are left with only the first term in form

 n f  x   a0 n  n  1 n  2  n  3  . . .  2 1 h n

 a0  n ! h n  constant.

This constant is independent of x. Since n f  x  is a constant n 1 f  x   0 . Hence the (n

+ 1)th and higher order differences of a polynomial of degree n are 0.

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Conversely, if the n th differences of a tabulated function are constant and the (n  1)th ,
(n  2)th,..., differences all vanish, then the tabulated function represents a polynomial of
degree n. It should be noted that these results hold good only if the values of x are equally
spaced. The converse is important in numerical analysis since it enables us to approximate
a function by a polynomial if its differences of some order become nearly constant.

Theorem (Differences of a polynomial)The nth differences of a polynomial of degree n is a

constant, when the values of the independent variable are given at equal intervals.
Exercises
1
1. Calculate f ( x)  , x  0(0.2)1 to (a) 2 decimal places, (b) 3 decimal places and (c)4
x 1
decimal places. Then compare the effect of rounding errors in the corresponding
difference tables.
2. Express 2y1 (i.e. 2f1 ) and 4y0 (i.e. 4f0 ) in terms of the values of the function y =
f(x).
3. Set up a difference table of f ( x)  x 2 for x  0(1)10 . Do the same with the calculated
value 25 of f (5) replaced by 26. Observe the spread of the error.
1
4. Calculate f ( x)  , x  0(0.2)1 to (a)2 decimal places, (b)3 decimal places and (c)4
x 1
decimal places. Then compare the effect of rounding errors in the corresponding
difference tables.
5. Set up a forward difference table of f(x) = x2 for x = 0(1)10. Do the same with the
calculated value 25 of f(5) replaced by 26. Observe the spread of the error.

6. Construct the difference table based on the following table.

x 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5

cosx 1.000 00 0.995 00 0.980 07 0.955 34 0.921 06 0.877 58

7. Construct the difference table based on the following table.

x 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5

sinx 0.000 00 0.099 0.198 0.295 0.389 0.479

83 67 52 42

8. Construct the backward difference table, where

f ( x)  sin x , x = 1.0(0.1)1.5, 4D.

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9. Show that E     E 1 / 2 .

10. Prove that

11. i    2 sinhhD / 2 and ii    2 coshhD / 2.

12. Show that the operators ,  , E,  and  commute with each other.

13. Construct the backward difference table based on the following table.

x 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5

cos x 1.000 0.995 0.980 0.955 0.921 0.877

00 00 07 34 06 58

Construct the difference table based on the following table.

x 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5

sin 0.000 0.099 0.198 0.295 0.389 0.479

x 00 83 67 52 42 43

6. Construct the backward difference table, where

f(x) = sin x, x = 1.0(0.1)1.5, 4D.

7. Evaluate (2 + 3)(E + 2)(3x2 + 2), interval of differencing being unity.

8. Compute the missing values of yn and yn in the following table:

yn yn  2 yn

-
- -
1
- -
4
6 5
13
- -
18
- -
24
- -

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