Applying The Divided Difference
The quintessential application of the divided difference is in the presentation of the definite integral, which is nothing more than a finite difference:
Given that the mean value, derivative expression form provides all of the same information as the classical integral notation, the mean value form may be the preferable expression, such as in writing venues that only support/accept standard ASCII text, or in cases that only require the average derivative (such as when finding the average radius in an elliptic integral). This is especially true for definite integrals that technically have (e.g.) 0 and either or as boundaries, with the same divided difference found as that with boundaries of 0 and (thus requiring less averaging effort):
This also becomes particularly useful when dealing with iterated and multiple integrals (ΔA = AU - AL, ΔB = BU - BL, ΔC = CU - CL):
Hence,
and
Read more about this topic: Difference Quotient
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