Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2003/iii/paper-68/2/solution

The degree- Bernstein basis is
For , every basis function is nonnegative, and the binomial theorem gives
Therefore is a convex combination of its control points. By the definition of their convex hull,
This includes the endpoints because and . It depends on the specified parameter interval: outside it the weights need not be nonnegative.
For , differentiating the basis and using the elementary binomial identities gives
where out-of-range basis indices are zero. Thus
Hence the Bézier derivative control polygon has points , and
In particular the endpoint tangent vectors are and . For the curve is constant and its derivative is zero.

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