Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 70 2 iii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Scale the equal intervals to unit length. A nonzero compactly supported cubic B-spline with maximum continuity is , so its fourth derivative is a sum of impulses at the knots. Equivalently it is a combination of truncated cubes,To vanish to the right of its support, the polynomial tail must be identically zero. Expanding that tail requires for . Four or fewer distinct knots give a full-rank Vandermonde matrix and only the zero solution. Hence a nonzero function requires at least five knots, or four intervals. At knots , the one-dimensional nullspace has coefficients proportional to . The unscaled combination integrates to six on , so unit-integral cardinal normalization gives:This is the Cardinal cubic B-spline, nonnegative with support . To obtain its cubic B-spline Bézier extraction, use local parameter on interval . The four power-form numerators, with a common divisor six, areFor , the cubic Bernstein basis coefficients are , , , . Applying this conversion givesEach scalar row describes a cubic Bézier curve graph piece with abscissa controls . The truncated-cube construction proves value, first- and second-derivative agreement at all joins, including the zero exterior. Minimum support and maximum continuity determine the basis up to a scalar; the displayed normalization fixes that remaining freedom.