Example 1.  Use in formula (4) and compute the coefficients of for the secant parabola  .

Solution 1.

Substitute     into the formulas given above and obtain

            

    and

            
    
which are used with the value    to obtain the secant parabola:  

          

The graphs of    and   are given in Figure 1.  

(c) John H. Mathews 2004