Editing Piecewise linear function (section)

==Fitting to a curve==

[[Image:Finite element method 1D illustration1.svg|right|thumb|A function (blue) and a piecewise linear approximation to it (red)]]
An approximation to a known curve can be found by sampling the curve and interpolating linearly between the points. An algorithm for computing the most significant points subject to a given error tolerance has been published.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Hamann | first1 = B. | last2 = Chen | first2 = J. L. | doi = 10.1016/0167-8396(94)90004-3 | title = Data point selection for piecewise linear curve approximation | journal = Computer Aided Geometric Design | volume = 11 | issue = 3 | pages = 289 | year = 1994 | url = https://escholarship.org/content/qt6p65k0mr/qt6p65k0mr.pdf?t=ptt2jz }}</ref>