Define the second modulus of smoothness by . The Jackson kernel is even, nonnegative and has integral one. Symmetrizing its convolution therefore gives
We first establish the needed scaling rule. For the translation operator , . Squaring gives . Central and forward second differences have the same norm. For every , take and . Taking the supremum over these proves
The zero-step case is immediate.
For , the inequalities , , and imply
Use the first estimate on and the second outside it. Then
All constants are independent of and . Combining these estimates proves the Jackson operator estimate
For , two applications of the fundamental theorem of calculus give the second-difference integral formula
for . Its absolute value is at most , so .
Finally, is a trigonometric polynomial of degree : its sine ratio squared is a Fejér polynomial of degree , and squaring doubles that degree. Thus has degree at most . To bound degree- best approximation, choose , rather than using directly. Since for , the smooth-function approximation rate is
For a continuous periodic function set
It measures smoothness through second differences without requiring a derivative. For , factoring the translation difference gives . The second-difference integral formula gives for twice continuously differentiable functions.