.. _sphx_glr_api_gallery_numerical_analysis_splines:

Cubic splines
-------------

Natural and clamped cubic spline interpolation, and how a piecewise cubic
avoids the oscillation a single high-degree interpolating polynomial can
show on the same data.


.. raw:: html

  <div id='sg-tag-list' class='sphx-glr-tag-list'></div>


.. raw:: html

    <div class="sphx-glr-thumbnails">

.. thumbnail-parent-div-open

.. raw:: html

    <div class="sphx-glr-thumbcontainer" tooltip="A cubic spline is a piecewise cubic through the data with continuous value, first, and second derivatives across nodes. A natural spline sets the curvature to zero at both ends; a clamped spline instead matches prescribed end-slopes. This script fits both to the same data and compares them against a single high-degree interpolating polynomial, which oscillates far more between nodes -- the practical motivation for splines over one global polynomial.">

.. only:: html

  .. image:: /api/gallery/numerical_analysis/splines/images/thumb/sphx_glr_plot_01_cubic_spline_thumb.png
    :alt:

  :doc:`/api/gallery/numerical_analysis/splines/plot_01_cubic_spline`

.. raw:: html

      <div class="sphx-glr-thumbnail-title">Natural and clamped cubic splines</div>
    </div>


.. thumbnail-parent-div-close

.. raw:: html

    </div>


.. toctree::
   :hidden:

   /api/gallery/numerical_analysis/splines/plot_01_cubic_spline