Bernstein polynomials (aka, B-polys) have excellent properties allowing them to be used as basis functions in many applications of physics. In this paper, a brief tutorial description of their properties is given and then their use in obtaining B-polys, B-splines or Basis spline functions, Bezier curves and ODE solution curves, is computationally demonstrated.  An example is also described showing their application to solving a fourth-order BVP relating to the bending at the free end of a cantilever.

B-Splines as piecewise adaptation of Bernstein polynomials (aka, B-polys) are widely used as Ritz variational basis functions in solving many problems in the fields of quantum mechanics and atomic physics. In this paper they are used to solve the 1-D stationary Schrodinger equation (TISE) for a free quantum particle subject to a fixed domain length by using the Python software SPLIPY with different sets of computation parameters. In every case it was found that over 60 percent of energy levels had excellent accuracy thereby proving that the use of B-spline collocation is a preferred method.