Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2007/ii/paper-2/38c/b/solution

Divide the supplied scheme by and take
Then , and is invertible because it is lower triangular with positive diagonal . Symmetry gives , so
The Householder-John theorem therefore gives convergence.
For a direct spectral proof, let . Expansion verifies . If with , then
The value is impossible since and is invertible. Both quadratic forms are positive, hence . The error obeys and tends to zero, proving convergence to the unique solution for every initial iterate. This is the successive-over-relaxation iteration, with no assertion of convergence at the excluded endpoints.

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