Quick questions on Simpson's rule for numerical integration in QCE Specialist Mathematics Unit 4

1short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.

What is the weighting pattern?

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The pattern of coefficients is

1, 4, 2, 4, 2, \dots, 4, 1

. The first and last are

1

, every odd-position interior value is

4

, every even-position interior value is

2

, and the values at odd positions always outnumber those at even positions. This pattern is why

n

must be even: the points group into pairs of strips, each capped by a parabola.

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