All Your Basis Are Belong To Us – a.k.

a.k. from thus spake a.k.

A few years ago we saw how we could approximate a function f between pairs of points (xi, f(xi)) and (xi+1, f(xi+1)) by linear and cubic spline interpolation which connect them with straight lines and cubic polynomials respectively, the latter of which yield smooth curves at the cost of somewhat arbitrary choices about their exact shapes.
An alternative approach is to construct a single function that passes through all of the points and, given that nth order polynomials are uniquely defined by n+1 values at distinct xi, it's tempting to use them.

New Directions Of Interpolation – a.k.

a.k. from thus spake a.k.

We have spent a few months looking at how we might interpolate between sets of points (xi, yi), where the xi are known as nodes and the yi as values, to approximate values of y for values of x between the nodes, either by connecting them with straight lines or with cubic curves.
Last time, in preparation for interpolating between multidimensional vector nodes, we implemented the ak.grid type to store ticks on a set of axes and map their intersections to ak.vector objects to represent such nodes arranged at the corners of hyperdimensional rectangular cuboids.
With this in place we're ready to take a look at one of the simplest multidimensional interpolation schemes; multilinear interpolation.

We’re Not For Turning – a.k.

a.k. from thus spake a.k.

We have seen how it is possible to smoothly interpolate between a set of points (xi, yi), with the xi known as nodes and the yi as values, by specifying the gradients gi at the nodes and calculating values between adjacent pairs using the uniquely defined cubic polynomials that match the values and gradients at them.
We have also seen how extrapolating such polynomials beyond the first and last nodes can yield less than satisfactory results, which we fixed by specifying the first and last gradients and then adding new first and last nodes to ensure that the first and last polynomials would represent straight lines.
Now we shall see how cubic spline interpolation can break down rather more dramatically and how we might fix it.

Cubic Line Division – a.k.

a.k. from thus spake a.k.

Last time we took a look at how we can use linear interpolation to approximate a function from a set of points on its graph by connecting them with straight lines. As a consequence the result isn't smooth, meaning that its derivative isn't continuous and is undefined at the x values of the points, known as the nodes of the interpolation.
In this post we shall see how we can define a smooth interpolation by connecting the points with curves rather than straight lines.

Chalk The Lines – a.k.

a.k. from thus spake a.k.

Given a set of points (xi,yi), a common problem in numerical analysis is trying to estimate values of y for values of x that aren't in the set. The simplest scheme is linear interpolation, which connects points with consecutive values of x with straight lines and then uses them to calculate values of y for values of x that lie between those of their endpoints.
On the face of it implementing this would seem to be a pretty trivial business, but doing so both accurately and efficiently is a surprisingly tricky affair, as we shall see in this post.