This document derives the Simpson's rule for numerical integration. It starts with the Lagrange polynomial used to approximate the integrand f(x). Replacing f(x) with the polynomial leads to an approximation of the integral as a weighted sum of the function values. For Simpson's rule with three equally spaced points x0, x1, x2, the approximating polynomial is given. Integrating this polynomial results in the Simpson's rule formula: the integral of f(x) from x0 to x2 is approximately equal to h/3(f0 + 4f1 + f2), where h is the spacing between points and fk = f(xk).
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