Dr. Kevin G. TeBeest
In lecture I derived the formula for the (explicit) Euler method (EE) by expanding the solution y(x) as a Taylor series about x0 (the left node) and then evaluating the series at x = x1 (the right node) to obtain
y1 = y0 + h f (x0, y0) , and a local error of
e1(h) = ½ y''(ξ) h2, where ξ is some value of x between x0 and x1. (The value of ξ is not arbitrary; it is simply unknown.)
You will now derive our second method, the implicit Euler method, by performing the following steps.
- Expand the solution y(x) as a Taylor series about x1 (the right node) and then evaluate the series at x0 (the left node) to obtain
y0 = y1 – h f (x1, y1) . Then the implicit Euler method is (solve for y1):
y1 = y0 + h f (x1, y1) .
- Use the "remainder term" R(x1) to show that the local error at node 1 (and therefore at each node) is:
e1(h) = – ½ y''(τ) h2 , where τ is some number between x0 and x1.
- Conclude that the global error of the implicit Euler method is
E(h) = O(h) .
Return to main index