# Homework Help: Inner Product

1. Mar 13, 2006

Let S be a finite set of real numbers. What is a natural inner product to define on the space of all functions f:S->R? I want to approximate an arbitrary function with a polynomial of a fixed degree (both of which are defined only on S), and I want to use projections to do it, but I have no inner product.

2. Mar 13, 2006

### matt grime

Since S is a finite set, any function on it (to R) is (equivalent to) a polynomial (indeed infinitely many distinct such), you don't need to approximate it.

3. Mar 13, 2006

Let me just post the question completely, in case I said something wrong:

"Let $$S={x_1,...,x_N}$$ be a collection of real numbers, and let $$(y_1,...,y_N)$$ be a sequence of real numbers. Fix an integer $$k<N$$. In general, there need not be a polynomial $$p$$ of degree $$\leq k$$ such that $$p(x_j)=y_j$$ for $$j=1,...,N$$. The next best thing one might ask for is a polynomial $$p$$ of degree less than $$k$$ for which the quantity

$$(p(x_1)-y_1)^2+...+(p(x_N)-y_N)^2$$

is minimized. Describe an approach that would produce such a $$p$$."

I'm not sure how any function is equivalent to a polynomial.

Last edited: Mar 13, 2006
4. Mar 13, 2006

I could proceed as follows:

Let $$P$$ be the space of polynomials of degree $$\leq k$$. Let $$p\in P$$. Define $$T:P\rightarrow \mathbb{R}^N$$ by $$T(p)=(p(x_1),...,p(x_N))$$ and then proceed to use the dot product on $$\mathbb{R}^N$$ and somehow minimize it?

5. Mar 13, 2006

### Hurkyl

Staff Emeritus
Not even f(x) := x² + 2x + 1?

You know techniques for minimizing functions in several variables. (what are the variables?) Why are you defining an inner product? It might be useful, but I get the feeling you simply want to use an inner product on this problem!

6. Mar 13, 2006

I must use an inner product to solve this problem. I want to use the fact that the orthogonal projection of a vector in the space of polynomials of degree less than k to the space of finitely-supported real-valued functions is the best approximation. But I don't know the inner product to use.

Last edited: Mar 13, 2006
7. Mar 14, 2006

### matt grime

Firstly, you did not limit the degree of the approximation required.

It is trivial that given a finite set of points and a function on them to R, that it might be realized by *some* polynomial, and equally trivial that it cannot in general be done by polys less than some fixed degree (less than the number of points). But none of that you bothered to state in the question.

Given points (x_1,..x_n) I can trivially produce some polynomial f such that f(x_i)=log(x_i) as long as deg(f) is allowed to be arbitrary. If you don't see that you can get a line passing through any two points in the plane (quadratic through any 3 etc), then you missed out on something somewhere.

Of course, less than n and it is impossible (generically), but you did not state that at the start.

You're simply doing some minimization problem in your case, albeit probably a hard one.

Last edited: Mar 14, 2006
8. Mar 14, 2006

### Hurkyl

Staff Emeritus
It's a quadratic minimization problem -- they're fairly straightforward to solve through a number of techniques. I would have suggested to just take the gradient of the darned thing and set it equal to zero, or maybe to try and set it up as a least-squares problem so he could use the general technique for that.

But he says he must use an inner product. Hrm. The expression he wants to minimize looks like it's the dot product of something with itself, but that doesn't seem to be a useful observation, although it might help a little with bookkeeping.

9. Mar 14, 2006