Approximation on Simplices with Respect to Weighted Sobolev Norms

Inequalities of Jackson and Bernstein type are derived for polynomial approximation on simplices with respect to Sobolev norms. Although we cannot use orthogonal polynomials, sharp estimates are obtained from a decomposition into orthogonal subspaces. The formulas reflect the symmetries of simplices, but analogous estimates on rectangles show that we cannot expect rotational invariance of the terms with derivatives.