Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2004/iii/paper-71/1/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 71 1 b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For each , let . The floor function ensures , even when the quantity being rounded is negative. The integer endpoint hypothesis gives . Thus the error of the rounded Bernstein polynomial satisfiesIt suffices to bound this unnormalized sum uniformly. If , put and sum a geometric series:The last inequality follows by maximizing , whose maximum occurs at and is at most . Reflection gives the same bound for . In the middle interval both and are at most , so each summand is at most . Therefore, for ,Endpoint integrality matters: at zero or one a noninteger value would leave a fixed nonzero rounding error.
New to topics? Read the docs here!