UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2023

APM2613

Numerical Methods I
____________________________________________________________________
Welcome to APM2613 exam.

Examiner : DR LC MASINGA
Internal Moderator: PROF AR ADEM
External Moderator:

Total marks: 100

Duration: 2 Hours

Number of pages: 3

INSTRUCTIONS
(i) This is a closed book and online examination which you have to write within 2 hours and submit
online using the link: https://cset.myexams.unisa.ac.za/my/
(ii) The examination session should be subjected to the IRIS invigilator tool. The nonuse of this tool
will lead to unaccepted scripts.
(iii) The examination paper will be available 15 minutes before the actual examination’s time to give
you time to download the paper. After the 2 hours for the writing of the examination, you will
have an extra 30 minutes to upload your attempts/answers.
(iv) Only the use of a non-programmable pocket calculator is allowed.
(v) This web based examination remains the property of the University of South Africa and may not
be distributed from the Unisa platform.
(vi) This examination allows single PDF attachment only as part of your submission.
(vii) Answer All Questions and Submit within the stipulated timeframe.
(viii) ALL CALCULATIONS MUST BE SHOWN.
See additional general rules overpage

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ADDITIONAL EXAMINATION RULES

Examinations rules have been updated to include the new changes in the October/November examinations.

October/November 2023 online examination rules.

Students are expected to familiarise themselves with online examination rules before their examination sittings.

Examination sessions commence at the time indicated on the final examination timetable. You are required to adhere
strictly to the specified times.

i. For file upload/take-home examinations:

1. Students must upload their answer scripts in a single PDF file on the official myExams platform (answer
scripts must not be password protected or uploaded as “read-only” files).

2. Incorrect file format and uncollated answer scripts will not be considered.

3. NO e-mailed scripts will be accepted.

4. Students are advised to preview submissions (answer scripts) to ensure legibility and that the correct answer
script file has been uploaded.

5. Incorrect answer scripts and/or submissions made on unofficial examination platforms (including the
invigilator cell phone application) will not be marked and no opportunity will be granted for resubmission.
Only the last answer file uploaded within the stipulated submission duration period will be marked.

6. Mark awarded for incomplete submission will be the student’s final mark. No opportunity for resubmission
will be granted.

7. Mark awarded for illegible scanned submission will be the student’s final mark. No opportunity for
resubmission will be granted.

8. Submissions will only be accepted from registered student accounts.

9. Students who have not utilised the proctoring tool will be deemed to have transgressed Unisa’s examination
rules and will have their marks withheld. If a student is found to have been outside the proctoring tool for a
total of 10 minutes during their examination session, they will be considered to have violated Unisa’s
examination rules and their marks will be withheld. For examinations which use the IRIS invigilator system,
IRIS must be recording throughout the duration of the examination until the submission of the examination
scripts.

10. Students have 48 hours from the date of their examination to upload their invigilator results from IRIS. Failure
to do so will result in students deemed to have utilized the proctoring tools.

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11. Students suspected of dishonest conduct during the examinations will be subjected to disciplinary
processes. Students may not communicate with any other person or request assistance from any person
during their examinations. Plagiarism is a violation of academic integrity and students who plagiarise, copy
from published work or Artificial Intelligence Software (eg ChatGPT) or online sources (eg course material),
will be in violation of the Policy on Academic Integrity and the Student Disciplinary Code and may be referred
to disciplinary hearing. Unisa has a zero tolerance for plagiarism and/or any forms of academic dishonesty

12. Listening to audio (music) and making use of audio-to-text software is strictly prohibited during the
examination session unless such usage of the software is related to a student’s assistive device which has
been declared. Failure to do so will be a transgression of Unisa’s examination rules and the student’s marks
will be withheld.

13. Students are provided 30 minutes to submit their answer scripts after the official examination time. Students
who experience technical challenges should report the challenges to the SCSC on 0800 001 870 or their
College exam support centres (refer to the Get help during the examinations by contacting the Student
Communication Service Centre [unisa.ac.za]) within 30 minutes. Queries received after 30 minutes of the
official examination duration time will not be responded to. Submissions made after the official examination
time will be rejected according to the examination regulations and will not be marked. Only communication
received from the myLife account will be considered.

14. Non-adherence to the processes for uploading examination responses will not qualify the student for any
special concessions or future assessments.

15. Queries that are beyond Unisa’s control include the following:

a. Personal network or service provider issues.

b. Load shedding/limited space on personal computer
c. Crashed computer
d. Non-functioning cameras or web cameras
e. Using work computers that block access to the myExams site (employer firewall challenges)
f. Unlicensed software (eg license expires during exams)

Postgraduate students experiencing the above challenges are advised to apply for an aegrotat and submit
supporting evidence within ten days of the examination session. Students will not be able to apply for an
aegrotat for a third examination opportunity.
Postgraduate/undergraduate students experiencing the above challenges in their second examination
opportunity will have to register for the affected module.

16. Students suspected of dishonest conduct during the examinations will be subjected to disciplinary processes.
UNISA has a zero tolerance for plagiarism and/or any other forms of academic dishonesty.
17. Students experiencing network or load shedding challenges are advised to apply together with supporting
evidence for an Aegrotat within three days of the examination session..

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NOTE: Please note that, unless otherwise stated, arguments of trigonometric functions are in radians.

QUESTION 1

(a) Give the geometric interpretation of the secant method for approximating the solution of the root equation (4)
f (x) = 0 and illustrate your explanation with a graphical description.

(b) Use the sketch curve to roughly locate all the roots of the equation (8)
x(x − 1) − ex = 0.
Use Newton’s method to find a root of the above equation accurate to 10−4 .

(c) Suppose newton’s method is to be used to solve the following system of nonlinear equations (13)
 3
x = xy
x2 + y 2 + 2y = 1
Write down explicitly the system of equations of the iterative scheme and complete one iteration, using
x0 = 1 and y0 = 0 as starting values.
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QUESTION 2

(a) What is partial pivoting and why is it used? (3)

(b) Solve the following system of linear equations by means of Gaussian elimination with scaled partial (12)
pivoting:
x1 + 2x2 − x3 = 0
2x1 − x2 + x3 = 6
3x1 + 2x2 − 4x3 = −4

(c) Perform two iterations of the Gauss-Seidel iterative method for approximating the solution of the linear (10)
system above. Start with (1, 1, 1)
[25]

QUESTION 3

Consider the data in the following table for a certain function

x f (x)
0 2.1
1 7.7
2 13.6
3 27.2
We assume that the x-values are error free.

(a) Compute a divided difference table for the given data. (5)

(b) Use Newton’s divided difference polynomial that interpolates all the data points to approximate f (1.5). (5)

(c) Find an approximation to f (1.5) using a least squares function of the form y = ea+bx and compute the (15)
least squares error in the approximation.
[25]

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 QUESTION 4

1
(a) What is the degree of the approximating polynomial on which the Simpson’s 3 rule is based? (2)

(b) Find an approximation of the integral (7)

Z 6
I= (x + 1)3 dx
0

by means of the composite Simpson’s 83 -th rule with n = 6

(c) For the two-term Gaussian formula for the integral between −1 and 1, we have the points t1 = −0.5773 (8)
and t2 = 0.5773, as well as the weights c1 = 1 and c2 = 1. Derive the two-point Gaussian quadrature
formula

(d) Use the two-term Gaussian quadrature formula to approximate the integral in (b) above. (8)
[25]

TOTAL MARKS: [100]

©
UNISA 2023
 Useful Formulas
• Nonlinear equations

f (xk )
xk+1 = xk −
f 0 (xk )
f (xk )(xk − xk−1 )
xk+1 = xk −
f (xk ) − f (xk−1 )

x(k+1) = x(k) − J −1 (x(k) )F(x(k) )

• Interpolation and Curve fitting

(x − x0 )(x − x2 ) . . . (x − xi−1 )(x − xi+1 . . . (x − xn ))

Li (x) =
(xi − x0 )(xi − x2 ) . . . (xi − xi−1 )(xi − xi+1 . . . (xi − xn ))
f [xi+1 , xi+2 . . . xi+k ] − f [xi , xi+1 . . . xi+k−1 ]
f [xi , xi+1 , . . . , xi+k−1 , xi+k ] =
xi+k − xi
1
f [x0 , x1 , . . . , xk ] = ∆k f (x0 )
k!hk
1
f [xn , xn−1 , . . . , xn−k ] = ∇k f (x0 )
k!hk

Sj (xj ) = aj + bj (x − xj ) + cj (x − xj )2 + dj (x − xj )3 , j = 0, 1, 2, . . . , n − 1]
 Pn Pn Pn n Pn
 aP0 1 1 + a1P 1 xi + · · · + anP 1 xi = P 1 yi
 a0 n1 xi + a1 n1 x2i + · · · + an n1 xn+1 n


i = 1 xi yi
.. ..


 . = .
Pn n Pn+1 2 Pn 2n Pn n
a0 1 xi + a1 1 xi + · · · + an 1 xi = 1 xi yi


• Numerical integration

R xi+1 h h3
xi
f (x) dx ≈ [f (xi ) + f (xi+1 )] − f 00 (ξ), xi < ξ < xi+1
2 12
R xi+2 h h5 00
xi
f (x) dx ≈ [f (xi ) + 4f (xi+1 ) + f (xi+2 )] − f (ξ), xi < ξ <
3 90
xi+2

R xi+3 3h 3h5 00
xi
f (x) dx ≈ [f (xi )+3f (xi+1 )+3f (xi+2 )+f (xi+3 )]− f (ξ), xi <
8 80
ξ < xi+3

Rb Pn R1 1
a
f (x) dx ≈ i=1 ci f (xi ) = −1
g(t) dt, x= [(b − a)t + a + b]
2

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