Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 69 3 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The midpoint quadratic spline collocation matrix isIts strict diagonal dominance margin is at least . The inverse infinity-norm bound from diagonal dominance thus already proves : choosing an index where a vector attains its maximum absolute entry gives , which also proves invertibility.
To evaluate the finite-dimensional norm exactly, set and . If is the matrix with ones on its two adjacent diagonals and zeros elsewhere, then . Since , the Neumann serieshas nonnegative entries. Thus has absolute entry values equal to those of . Its absolute row-sum vector is , characterized byThe homogeneous roots are , and the constant particular solution is . Writing and imposing the two boundary values givesThis is largest at the middle row or rows. Therefore, with , the exact norm isFor example, it is for and for , and it increases towards two as the system grows. Thus two is a uniform bound, rather than the exact finite- inverse norm.