Numerical Analysis – example of practical questions

 Let 𝑥 ∈ 𝔽30 , write the Matlab code to assign the following array

30
𝑥(𝑖)
𝑆(𝑘) = ∏ , 𝑘 = 1, … , 30
𝑥(𝑘) − 𝑥(𝑖)
𝑖=1,𝑖≠𝑘

tip: 𝔽 is the set of floating-point numbers

 Let 𝑥 ∈ 𝔽𝑛−1 , write the Matlab code to compute the following

𝑛−1
𝑥𝑖+1
𝑠 = ∑| |
𝑥𝑖
𝑖=1

tip: 𝔽 is the set of floating-point numbers

 Let 𝑥 be an array of 𝑛 numbers, write the Matlab code to compute the following

𝑥2 𝑥3 𝑥𝑛
max {1,2 | | , 3 | | , … , 𝑛 | |}
𝑥1 𝑥1 𝑥1

𝑘
tip: observe that |𝑘| = 1 and try to solve both with a single instruction (matlab style) or with

a code snippet

 Let 𝑥 be an array of 𝑛 numbers, write the Matlab code to compute the following

2 𝑛
max {|𝑥(1)|, √|𝑥(2)|, … , √|𝑥(𝑛)|}

𝑛
tip: write the √𝑘 as 𝑘 (… ) and try to solve both with a single instruction (matlab style) or

with a code snippet

 Let 𝐴 be a squared matrix of 25 elements. Write the Matlab code to swap the first and the

sixth rows of 𝐴, if possible.

1 2 3 4 5 6
4 3 4 3 6 7
 Let 𝐴 = 0 5 0 4 2 2 . What is the expected output for the following Matlab
4 5 0 8 6 3
1 2 8 6 4 5
[2 2 9 5 7 0]

instruction?

𝐵 = 𝐴(1: 3, [8 6 4 1])
 Numerical Analysis – example of theoretical questions

 How is a real number represented in floating-point?

 Describe the set of floating-point numbers

 Describe the bisection method to solve the nonlinear equation 𝑓(𝑥) = 0

 Describe the Newton’s method to solve the nonlinear equation 𝑓(𝑥) = 0. What happens in

case of multiple roots?

 Describe the Secant method to solve the nonlinear equation 𝑓(𝑥) = 0

 Describe the general theory for one-point iteration methods 𝑥 = 𝑔(𝑥) and how to use that

methods to solve the nonlinear equation 𝑓(𝑥) = 0

 Are there any similarities between the Newton’s method and the general theory for one-

point iteration methods?

 Describe the Newton’s method for nonlinear systems and its “frozen” variant. What is

“frozen” referred to? What are the implications in terms of flops? (floating point operations)

 Describe the polynomial interpolation theory

 Describe the Lagrange polynomial interpolation and Runge’s phenomenon

 What is the minimax approximation problem?

 Describe the least squares approximation problem and the linear regression 𝑦 = 𝛼𝑥 + 𝛽. Why

is it called Least Squares Regression Line?

 Describe one method for the Numerical Integration

 Describe one formula for the Numerical differentiation

 Describe Gaussian Elimination method to find the numerical solution of the linear system

𝐴𝒙 = 𝒃

 Describe the Pivoting strategies for Gaussian Elimination

 Describe the 𝐴 = 𝐿𝑈 matrix decomposition with both Crout and Doolittle methods