Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2005 iii Paper 6 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
We construct the finite evaluation representation explicitly by Lagrange interpolation. This supplies all the polynomial facts needed for the bound.
Define the Chebyshev polynomial by andInduction shows that has degree ; the cosine addition identity also proves . Therefore , and follows from the recurrence. The case is immediate, since both and are constant.
For , choose the descending extremal nodesso . Define the fundamental interpolation polynomialsThey satisfy . Consequentlyfor every polynomial of degree at most : the difference has degree at most and vanishes at the distinct nodes, so it is zero. The root count used here follows by successively factoring from a polynomial having such a root; a nonzero degree- polynomial cannot have more than distinct roots. Thus the interpolation identity has been proved.
If , every numerator factor in is positive, while exactly denominator factors are negative. Hence . Applying interpolation to itself givesPutting in the interpolation formula yieldsFor , apply the proved positive-side inequality to at , and use the parity identity. The result isThis is sharp, with equality for or its scalar multiples.
In functional terms, the evaluation map on the normed polynomial space has : the inequality gives the upper bound and attains it. For , its normalized version has the exact representationThus Chebyshev interpolation represents external evaluation using nodes. The necessary finite representation and its norm are derived directly, so no convex-hull theorem is being invoked without proof.