Direct Method of

Interpolation

Major: All Engineering Majors

Authors: Autar Kaw, Jai Paul

http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu
Transforming Numerical Methods Education for STEM
Undergraduates

http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu 1
 Direct Method of
Interpolation

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 What is Interpolation ?
Given (x0,y0), (x1,y1), …… (xn,yn), find the value of ‘y’ at a
value of ‘x’ that is not given.

Figure 1 Interpolation of discrete.

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 Interpolants
Polynomials are the most common
choice of interpolants because they
are easy to:
Evaluate
Differentiate, and
Integrate

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 Direct Method
Given ‘n+1’ data points (x0,y0), (x1,y1),………….. (xn,yn),
pass a polynomial of order ‘n’ through the data as given
below:

y  a0  a1 x  ....................  an x . n

where a0, a1,………………. an are real constants.

 Set up ‘n+1’ equations to find ‘n+1’ constants.

 To find the value ‘y’ at a given value of ‘x’, simply

substitute the value of ‘x’ in the above polynomial.

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 Example 1
The upward velocity of a rocket is given as a function
of time in Table 1.
Find the velocity at t=16 seconds using the direct
method for linear interpolation.

Table 1 Velocity as a function

of time.

t,  s v t  ,  m/s 

0 0
10 227.04
15 362.78
20 517.35
22.5 602.97
30 901.67 Figure 2 Velocity vs. time data for the
rocket example
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 Linear Interpolation
v t   a0  a1t y

v15  a 0  a1 15  362.78  x1 , y1 

v 20  a 0  a1  20  517.35  x0 , y0 

f1  x 

Solving the above two equations gives, x

a0  100.93 a1  30.914 Figure 3 Linear interpolation.

Hence
v t   100.93  30.914t , 15  t  20.
v16   100.93  30.91416   393.7 m/s

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 Example 2
The upward velocity of a rocket is given as a function
of time in Table 2.
Find the velocity at t=16 seconds using the direct
method for quadratic interpolation.

Table 2 Velocity as a function

of time.

t,  s v t  ,  m/s 

0 0
10 227.04
15 362.78
20 517.35
22.5 602.97
30 901.67 Figure 5 Velocity vs. time data for the
rocket example
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 Quadratic Interpolation
y

v t   a0  a1t  a2t 2  x1 , y1 
v10  a0  a1 10  a2 10  227.04
2  x2 , y 2 

v15  a0  a1 15  a2 15  362.78

2

f2  x
v 20  a0  a1  20  a2  20  517.35
2
 x0 , y 0 
x

Figure 6 Quadratic interpolation.

Solving the above three equations gives

a0  12.05 a1  17.733 a2  0.3766
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 Quadratic Interpolation (cont.)
550
517.35

v t   12.05  17.733t  0.3766t , 10  t  20

500
2
450

ys

v16  12.05  17.73316  0.376616

400
2 f ( range)


f x desired  350

 392.19 m/s 300

250

227.04 200
10 12 14 16 18 20
10 x s  range x desired 20

The absolute relative approximate error a obtained between

the results from the first and second order polynomial is
392.19  393.70
a  100
392.19
 0.38410%
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 Example 3
The upward velocity of a rocket is given as a function
of time in Table 3.
Find the velocity at t=16 seconds using the direct
method for cubic interpolation.

Table 3 Velocity as a function

of time.

t,  s v t  ,  m/s 

0 0
10 227.04
15 362.78
20 517.35
22.5 602.97
30 901.67 Figure 6 Velocity vs. time data for the
rocket example
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 Cubic Interpolation
y

 x3 , y3 
v t   a0  a1t  a2t  a3t
2 3

 x1 , y1 
v10  227.04  a0  a1 10  a2 10  a3 10
2 3

f3  x
 x2 , y 2 
v15  362.78  a0  a1 15  a2 15  a3 15
2 3
 x0 , y0 

v 20  517.35  a0  a1  20  a2  20  a3  20

2 3 x

Figure 7 Cubic interpolation.

v 22.5  602.97  a0  a1  22.5  a2  22.5  a3  22.5
2 3

a0  4.2540 a1  21.266 a2  0.13204 a3  0.0054347

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 Cubic Interpolation (contd)
v t   4.2540  21.266t  0.13204t 2  0.0054347t 3 , 10  t  22.5
v16  4.2540  21.26616   0.1320416  0.005434716
2 3

 392.06 m/s
700
602.97

The absolute percentage relative

approximate error a between
600

ys 500 second and third order polynomial is

f ( range)


f x desired 

392.06  392.19
400

a  100
300
392.06
227.04 200
10
10
12 14 16 18
x s  range x desired
20 22 24
22.5
 0.033269%

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 Comparison Table

Table 4 Comparison of different orders of the polynomial.

Order of
1 2 3
Polynomial
v t  16  m/s 393.7 392.19 392.06
Absolute Relative
---------- 0.38410 % 0.033269 %
Approximate Error

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 Distance from Velocity Profile
Find the distance covered by the rocket from t=11s to t=16s ?
v t   4.3810  21.289t  0.13064t 2  0.0054606t 3 , 10  t  22.5
16
s16  s11   v t  dt
11
16

   4.2540  21.266t  0.13204t 2  0.0054347t 3 dt
11
16
 t2 t3 t4 
  4.2540t  21.266  0.13204  0.0054347 
 2 3 4 11
 1605 m

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 Acceleration from Velocity Profile
Find the acceleration of the rocket at t=16s given that
  t   4.2540  21.266t  0.13204 2  0.0054347t 3 ,10  t  22.5
d
a t   v t 
dt

d
dt

 4.2540  21.266t  0.13204t 2  0.0054347t 3 
 21.289  0.26130t  0.016382t 2 , 10  t  22.5

a 16   21.266  0.2640816   0.01630416 

2

 29.665 m/s 2

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 Additional Resources
For all resources on this topic such as digital audiovisual
lectures, primers, textbook chapters, multiple-choice
tests, worksheets in MATLAB, MATHEMATICA, MathCad
and MAPLE, blogs, related physical problems, please
visit

http://numericalmethods.eng.usf.edu/topics/direct_met
hod.html
 THE END

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