Editing Wilkinson's polynomial (section)

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{multiple image
|align=right
|direction=vertical
|width=300
|image1=Wilkinson polynomial.svg
|caption1=[[Graph of a function|Graph]] of Wilkinson's polynomial
|image2=log Wilkinson polynomial.svg
|caption2=Graph of <math>\sgn(w(x))\ln(1+|w(x)|)</math>
}}

In [[numerical analysis]], '''Wilkinson's polynomial''' is a specific [[polynomial]] which was used by [[James H. Wilkinson]] in 1963 to illustrate a difficulty when [[root-finding algorithm|finding the roots]] of a polynomial: the location of the [[root of a polynomial|roots]] can be very sensitive to perturbations in the [[coefficient]]s of the polynomial.

The polynomial is
<math display="block"> w(x) = \prod_{i=1}^{20} (x - i) = (x-1) (x-2) \cdots (x-20). </math>
Sometimes, the term ''Wilkinson's polynomial'' is also used to refer to some other polynomials appearing in Wilkinson's discussion.