Bahir Dar Faculty of

Institute of Chemical and Food

Technology Engineering

Lecture Note
on
Advance Numerical Methods

2014 E.C Surafel Aregahegn

11/11/2024 Lecture on Numerical Methods by Surafel A.

Teaching Material

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 Learning Outcomes:

❖ Recognize the difference between analytical and numerical solutions

❖ Understand errors in numerical method

❖ Use bracketing and open methods to solve root of equation problems

❖ Solve simultaneously sets of linear algebraic equations using Naïve Gauss Elimination,
LU Decomposition and Gauss-Siedel methods.

❖ Solve regression and interpolation problems

❖ Solve numerical differentiation problems using suitable numerical differentiation

formulas

❖ solving integral problems with suitable numerical methods

❖ Solve Ordinary Differential Equation problems using Euler’s, and Runge-Kutta

methods

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 General approaches

1. Analytical methods : mathematical techniques that

provide exact solutions to problems
2. Experimental method : obtain the required system
information by means of tests
3. Numerical methods : investigations are performed
by means of numerical methods on computers

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Why Numerical Method?
➢ Only limited analytical and exact solutions are available for
most engineering problems

• Only for linear problems

• Simple geometry and lower dimension

➢ It allows to represent engineering problems graphically for
large dimensions and non-linear systems

➢ It minimize the routen work of large experiments

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Numerical Method Versus other Methods
Analytical Numerical Experimental
Methods Methods Methods

11/11/2024 Lecture on Numerical Methods by Surafel A.

 Significant Figures

❖ A significant figure is a figure or a digit that contributes to how accurately

something can be measured. Measuring anything is limited by the measuring
device you use.
RULES FOR SIGNIFICANT FIGURES
✓ All non-zero numbers are significant: The number 33.2 has three significant
figures because all of the digits present are non-zero.
✓ Zeros between two non-zero digits are significant: The number 2051 has
FOUR significant figures. The zero is between a 2 and a 5 are considers as a
significant digit.
✓ Leading zeros are NOT significant: They're nothing more than place holders.
The number 0.54 has only TWO significant figures. 0.0032 also has TWO
significant figures. All of the zeros are leading.

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 Significant Figures
✓ Exact numbers have an INFINITE number of significant figures: This rule applies to
numbers that are definitions. For example, 1 meter = 1.00 meters = 1.0000 meters =
1.0000000000000000000 meters, etc.
✓ Round 1000.3 to four significant figures? 1000.3 has five significant figures (the zeros are
between non-zero digits 1 and 3, so by rule 2 above, they are significant.) We need to drop
the final 3, and since 3 < 5, we leave the last zero alone. so 1000. is our four-significant-
figure answer. (from rules 5 and 6, we see that in order for the trailing zeros to "count" as
significant, they must be followed by a decimal. Writing just "1000" would give us only
one significant figure.)
✓ For a number in scientific notation: N x 10^x, all digits comprising N are significant by the
first 6 rules; "10" and "x" are NOT significant: 5.02 x 10^4 has THREE significant figures:
"5.02." "10 and "4" are not significant.
✓ Rule 8 provides the opportunity to change the number of significant figures in a value by
manipulating its form. For example, let's try writing 1100 with THREE significant figures.
✓ By rule 6, 1100 has TWO significant figures; its two trailing zeros are not significant.
✓ If we add a decimal to the end, we have 1100., with FOUR significant figures (by rule 5.)
But by writing it in scientific notation. 1.10 x 103, we create a THREE-significant-figure
value.

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Introduction: Basic concepts (error in numerical solutions)
❑ Numerical errors arise from the use of approximations to
represent exact mathematical operations and quantities
❑ Understanding the concept of error is important for the
effective use of numerical methods

● There exist discrepancy from analytical solution

● Engineering problems does not have analytical

solutions Mainly two type of errors
In Numerical
1. Round-off errors: approximation
2. Truncation errors:
True value = approximation + error
11/11/2024 Lecture on Numerical Methods by Surafel A.
Introduction: Basic concepts (error in numerical
• Round-off errors:
✓ are caused by the finite word length (number of bytes)
employed in the calculations by computers.
✓ when numbers having limited significant figures are used to
represent exact numbers.

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Introduction: Basic concepts (error in numerical solutions)
▪ Truncation errors:
✓ Numerical errors arise from the use of approximations to represent
exact mathematical operations/ Procedures
✓ Is the error caused by truncating the Tayleor series expressions
for the exact derivatives.

Truncation errors depends on:

•The step size ∆x, The order of the approximation O(∆xn)

11/11/2024 Lecture on Numerical Methods by Surafel A.

Introduction: Basic concepts (error in numerical solutions)

11/11/2024 Lecture on Numerical Methods by Surafel A.

Introduction: Basic concepts (error in numerical solutions)

True error: used to designate the exact value of the error

Et = true value – approximation
True-relative error: is an error used to account
the magnitude of measurement

Relative error : true error

true value

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Introduction: Basic concepts (error in numerical solutions)

Problem Statement. Suppose that you have the task of measuring the lengths of a
bridge and a rivet and come up with 9999 and 9 cm, respectively. If the true values are
10,000 and 10 cm, respectively, compute (a) the true error and (b) the true percent relative
error for each case.

▪ For numerical methods, the true value will be known only when we deal with functions
that can be solved analytically. However, in real-world applications, we will obviously
not know the true answer a priori. For these situations, an alternative is to normalize the
error using the best available estimate of the true value, that is, to the approximation
ε = (0.5 ×
s (3.
itself, as in 10 )%2-n 7

Aproximación error
εa =aproxímate error if the following criterion is met, we can be assured that
aproximación 100% the result is correct to at least n significant figures.
Reading assignment example 3.2

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Introduction: Basic concepts (error in numerical solutions)
Accuracy and Precision: The error associated with both
calculations and measurements can be characterized
With regard to their accuracy and precision
Accuracy: refers to how closely a
computed or measured values
agrees with the true value
Precision: refers to how closely
individual computed or measured
values with each other

An example from marksmanship illustrating the concepts of accuracy and precision.

(a) Inaccurate and imprecise; (b) accurate and imprecise; (c) inaccurate and precise; (d)
accurate and precise.
11/11/2024 Lecture on Numerical Methods by Surafel A.
11/11/2024 Lecture on Numerical Methods by Surafel A.