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Numerical differentiation estimates derivatives from finitely many function values, often by differentiating an interpolation polynomial or using a finite difference. Its error combines truncation error from the formula with errors already present in the sampled values and additional roundoff error. Decreasing the sample spacing can decrease truncation error while increasing the effect of uncertain values. This tradeoff is explained by the ill-posedness of numerical differentiation when only an absolute value-error bound is available.

Write ${\tilde{p}}_1$ and $\tilde{q}$ for the quantities computed from the perturbed second sample. The endpoint linear interpolation and its derivative areCompare them on their interpolation interval $0\le x\le h$, with fixed $a>0$. Put $x=th$, $0\le t\le 1$. The Taylor series of the sine gives, uniformly in $t$,Here the second equality compares with $f^{\prime }(0)=a$. More generally, the exact derivative is $f^{\prime }(th)=a\cos (ath)$ andThe input perturbation itself changes the value interpolant by exactly $aϵx/h$, and changes its derivative by exactly $aϵ/h$. ThusFor fixed nonzero $ϵ$, the value approximation has a bounded noise floor: its maximum error approaches $a|ϵ|$, and at $x=h$ that error is exactly $a|ϵ|$. It does not converge uniformly to the exact values as $h\to 0$. However, it does not amplify the absolute sample perturbation on $[0,h]$. The derivative error instead grows without bound like $a|ϵ|/h$.

With exact samples, $ϵ=0$, both approximations do converge on the shrinking interval: the value error is $O(h^3)$ for this particular sine, and the derivative error is $O(h^2)$. With step-dependent noise, value convergence requires $ϵ(h)\to 0$, whereas derivative convergence requires the stronger $ϵ(h)=o(h)$, where $o$ denotes little o notation.

This is noise amplification by differentiation of a linear interpolant. Value interpolation has an absolute perturbation bound independent of $h$ on the sampled interval. Numerical differentiation has a perturbation factor $1/h$, expressing the ill-posedness of numerical differentiation from values with fixed absolute uncertainty. The amplification follows from the mathematical data map even in exact arithmetic; it is distinct from additional roundoff error in a particular implementation. For fixed $x$ outside $[0,h]$, the operation becomes extrapolation, and the value perturbation $aϵx/h$ can also diverge.