Cubic Spline solutions to Fourth-order Boundary Value Problems The cubic spline approximation to the fourth-order differential equation y''''+p(x)y''+q(x)y'+r(x)y=t(x) is shown to reduce to the solution of a five-term recurrence relationship. For some special cases the approximation is shown to be simply related to a finite difference representation with a local truncation error of order (y/720)delta^8. CACM June, 1973 Hoskins, W. D. cubic spline, differential equations, boundary value problem 5.13 5.17 CA730613 JB January 23, 1978 1:44 PM 2487 5 2487 2487 5 2487 2487 5 2487