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Chebyshev Nodes


A Chebyshev node is one of a set of abscissas used for polynomial interpolation, obtained by projecting equally spaced points on a semicircle onto its diameter. The n roots of the Chebyshev polynomial of the first kind T_n give the node set

 x_k=cos(((2k-1)pi)/(2n)),
(1)

for k=1, ..., n. These lie in (-1,1) and cluster toward the ends of the interval. They minimize the maximum absolute value on [-1,1] of the monic polynomial product_(k=1)^(n)(x-x_k), which appears in the error formula for polynomial interpolation.

Another common choice, often called Chebyshev-Lobatto points, includes both endpoints and uses the extrema of T_n,

 x_k=cos(kpi)/n,
(2)

for k=0, ..., n and n>=1. Both conventions are called Chebyshev nodes, so the node formula should be specified. Nodes on a general interval [a,b] are obtained from either set by the affine transformation

 t_k=(a+b)/2+(b-a)/2x_k.
(3)

See also

Chebyshev Polynomial of the First Kind, Interpolation, Lagrange Interpolating Polynomial

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References

Driscoll, T. A. and Braun, R. J. "Polynomial Interpolation." §9.1 in Fundamentals of Numerical Computation. Philadelphia, PA: Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, 2017. https://fncbook.com/polynomial/.

Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Chebyshev Nodes." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/ChebyshevNodes.html

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