What is linear interpolation ?
There is more than one meaning to this expression. They all assume one thing: a graph which is curved can be approximated closely by a series of straight lines if they are short enough. Basically, if you have a table of values such as: – physical constants like pressures and volumes of gases, – logarithms or other mathematical tables, – historical data such as populations or economic values, then you may need to find a value that is between two values in the table but is not given. So you use linear interpolation. Assume that the nearest two values, above and below, lie on a straight line with all intermediate values. Then you can draw a little graph or do a quick calculation that assumes the differences in the table can be made up by equal amounts. If x = 0 and y = 20, while x= 10 and y = 50 Then every x-increase is equal to a y-increase of 3. Why? Because an increase in x of 10 leads to an increase in y of 30. That’s 3 in y for ever 1 in x. That assumes they are related in a linear w
