Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2009 / ii / Paper 2 / 2F / a / Solution

The Chebyshev alternation theorem says that for $f\in C([a,b])$ a polynomial $q$ of degree at most $n-1$ is a best uniform approximation precisely when there are $n+1$ ordered points $a\le x_0<\cdots <x_n\le b$ such thatThe best polynomial is unique. These equally large alternating extrema are the equal-ripple criterion; the zero-error case is interpreted in the evident way.