Proof
Let us call
and
then
and
are polynomials of degree
or less. Hence,
must be a polynomial of degree
or less.
For
, we have that
and
. Therefore,
or
.
For
,
so,
or
.
Similarly, for
, we find that
.
Hence,
is a polynomial of degree
or less which fits the
data points (
) . Since such a polynomial is unique,
must be the Lagrange Polynomial through these data points.