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Count the Differences

Activity Overview

Students are given data, asked to find the finite differences, and then use this to find a polynomial that models the data.

Key Steps

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    Students begin by finding the first-order differences of a linear relation to make the connection between finding slope and finite differences.

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    Then, students will find second- and third-order finite differences in order to find a polynomial that models the given data.

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    As an extension, students will use matrix equations to find polynomials that model the data from this activity.

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