6CCM359A: Root Finding

Most of these exercises are from Numerical Analysis, R.L. Burden and J.D. Faires
(8th edition), where you may find the final result, but not a detailed derivation.
Many of these exercises are intended to be done with pen and paper (and calculator),
but it may be useful to implement them in Excel.
Theorems and proofs
1. Prove the following theorem:
Suppose that f C[a, b] and f (a)f (b) < 0. The bisection method generates a
sequence {pn }
n=1 approximating a zero p of f with
|pn p|

ba
,
2n

when n 1

2. Prove the following theorem:

(I) If g C[a, b] and g(x) [a, b] for all x [a, b], then g has a fixed point in [a, b]
(II) If, in addition g 0 (x) exists on (a, b) and a positive constant k < 1 exists with
|g 0 (x)| k ,

for all x (a, b)

then the fixed point in [a, b] is unique.

3. Prove the following fixed-point theorem:
Let g C[a, b] be such that g(x) [a, b], for all x [a, b]. Suppose, in addition,
that g 0 exists on (a, b) and that a constant 0 < k < 1 exists with
|g 0 (x)| k ,

for all x (a, b)

Then, for any number p0 [a, b], the sequence defined by

pn = g(pn1 ) ,

n1

converges to the unique fixed point p in [a, b].

4. Prove the following corollary of the previous theorem:
If g satisfies the hypotheses of the preceding theorem, then bounds for the error
involved in using pn to approximate p are given by
|pn p| k n max{p0 a, b p0 }
and

kn
|pn p|
|p1 p0 | ,
1k

5. Prove the following theorem:

1

for all n 1

Let f C 2 [a, b]. If p [a, b] is such that f (p) = 0 and f 0 (p) 6= 0, then there exists
a > 0 such that Newtons method generates a sequence {pn }
n=1 converging to p
for any initial approximation p0 [p , p + ]
6. Prove the following theorem:
Let g C[a, b] be such that g(x) [a, b], for all x [a, b]. Suppose in addition that
g 0 is continous on (a, b) and that a positive constant k < 1 exists with
|g 0 (x)| k

for all x (a, b)

If g 0 (p) 6= 0, then for any number p0 in [a, b], the sequence

pn = g(pn1 )

for n 1

converges only linearly to the unique fixed point p [a, b]

7. Prove the following theorem:
Let p be a solution of the equation x = g(x). Suppose that g 0 (p) = 0 and that g 00 is
continous with |g 00 (x)| < M on an open interval I containing p. Then there exists a
number > 0 such that, for p0 [p , p + ] the sequence defined by pn = g(pn1 ),
when n 1, converges at least quadratically to p. Moreover, for sufficiently large
vaues of n.
M
|pn p|2
|pn+1 p| <
2
Bisection Method

8. Use the Bisection method to find p3 for f (x) = x cos(x) on x [0, 1].
9. Let f (x) = 3(x + 1)(x 12 )(x 1). Use the Bisection method on the following intervals
to find p3
(I) [2, 1.5]
(II) [1.25, 2.5]
10. Use the Bisection method to find solutions accurate to within 102 for x3 7x2 +14x6 =
0 on each interval
(I) [0, 1]
(II) [1, 3.2]
(III) [3.2, 4]
11. Use the Bisection method to find solutions accurate to within 102 for x4 2x3 4x2 +
4x + 4 = 0 on each interval
(I) [2, 1]
2

(II) [0, 2]
(III) [2, 3]
(IV) [1, 0]
12. Let f (x) = (x + 2)(x + 1)2 x(x 1)3 (x 2). To which zero of f does the Bisection method
converge when applied on the following intervals?
(I) [1.5, 2.5]
(II) [0.5, 2.4]
(III) [0.5, 3]
(IV) [3, 0.5]
13. Let f (x) = (x + 2)(x + 1)x(x 1)3 (x 2). To which zero of f does the Bisection method
converge when applied on the following intervals?
(I) [3, 2.5]
(II) [2.5, 3]
(III) [1.75, 1.5]
(IV) [1.5, 1.75]
Fixed-Point Iteration
14. Use algebraic manipulations to show that each of the following functions has a fixed point
at p precisely when f (p) = 0, where f (x) = x4 + 2x2 x 3
(I) g1 (x) = (3 + x 2x2 )1/4

1/2
4
(II) g2 (x) = x+3x
2
(III) g3 (x) =
(IV) g4 (x) =

x+3 1/2
2
x +2


3x4 +2x2 +3
4x3 +4x1

15.
Perform four iterations, if possible, on the four functions g defined above. Let
p0 = 1 and pn+1 = g(pn ) for n = 0, 1, 2, 3
Which function gives the best approximation to the solution?
16. The following four methods are proposed to compute 211/3 . Rank them in order, based
on their speed of convergence, assuming that p0 = 1
3

(a) pn =

20pn1 +21/p2n1
21

(b) pn = pn1

p3n1 21
3p2n1

(c) pn = pn1

p4n1 21pn1
p2n1 21

(d) pn =

21

1/2

pn1

17. The following four methods are proposed to compute 71/5 . Rank them in order, based on
their speed of convergence, assuming that p0 = 1

(a) pn = pn1 1 +

7p5n1
p2n1

(b) pn = pn1

p5n1 7
p2n1

(c) pn = pn1

p5n1 7
5p4n1

(d) pn = pn1

p5n1 7
12

3

18. Use a fixed-point iteration method to determine a solution accurate to within 102 for
x4 3x2 3 = 0 on [1, 2]. Use p0 = 1.
19. Use a fixed-point iteration method to determine a solution accurate to within 102 for
x3 x 1 = 0 on [1, 2]. Use p0 = 1.
20. Use theorem stated in Q2 of Theorems and proofs to show that g(x) = + 0.5 sin(x/2)
has a unique point on [0, 2]. Use fixed-point iteration to find an approximation to the
fixed point that is accurate to within 102 . Use Corollary stated in Q4 of Theorems
and proofs to estimate the number of iterations required to achieve 102 accuracy, and
compare this theoretical estimate to the number actually needed.
21. Use theorem stated in Q2 of Theorems and proofs to show that g(x) = 2x has a unique
point on [1/3, 1]. Use fixed-point iteration to find an approximation to the fixed point
that is accurate to within 104 . Use Corollary stated in Q4 of Theorems and proofs to
estimate the number of iterations required to achieve 104 accuracy, and compare this
theoretical estimate to the number actually needed.

Newtons Method
22. Let f (x) = x2 6 and p0 = 1. Use Newtons method to find p2 .
23. Let f (x) = x3 cos(x) and p0 = 1. Use Newtons method to find p2 . Could p0 = 0
be used?
24. Letf (x) = x2 6. With p0 = 3 and p1 = 2, find p3
(I) Using the Secant Method.
(II) Using the method of False position

(II) Which result is closer to 6?

25. Let f (x) = x3 cos(x). With p0 = 1 and p1 = 0, find p3
(I) Using the Secant Method.
(II) Using the method of False position
26. Use Newtons method to find solutions accurate to within 104 for the following problems:
(I) x3 2x2 5 = 0,
(II) x cos(x) = 0,

[1, 4]
[0, /2]

(III) x3 + 3x2 1 = 0,

[3, 2]

(IV) x 0.8 0.2 sin(x) = 0,

[0, /2]

Error Analysis for Iterative Methods

27. Show that the following sequences converge linearly to p = 0. How large must n be before
we have |pn p| 5 102 ?
(I) pn = 1/n ,
(II) pn = 1/n2 ,

n1
n1

28.
(I) Show that for any positive integer k, the sequence defined by pn = 1/nk converges
linearly to p = 0.
(II) For each pair of integers k and m, determine a number N for which 1/N k < 10m
29.
n

(I) Show that the sequence pn = 102 converges quadratically to 0.

k

(II) Show that the sequence pn = 10n does not converge to 0 quadratically, regardless
of the size of the exponent k > 1.
5

30.
(I) Construct a sequence that converges to 0 of order 3
(II) Suppose that > 1. Construct a sequence that converges to 0 of order .
31. Show that the Bisection method gives a sequence with an error bound that converges
linearly to 0.
32. Check that the iterative method to solve f (x) = 0, given by the fixed-point method
g(x) = x, where

2
f 00 (pn1 ) f (pn1 )
f (pn1 )

,
pn = g(pn1 ) = pn1 0
f (pn1 ) 2f 0 (pn1 ) f 0 (pn1 )

(1)

n1

has g 0 (p) = g 00 (p) = 0. This will generally yield cubic ( = 3) convergence. Look for a
simple example to compare quadratic and cubic convergence.
Accelerating Convergence

33. The following sequences are linearly convergent. Generate the first five terms of the
sequence {
pn } using Aitkens 2 method:
(I) p0 = 0.5, pn = (2 epn1 + p2n1 )/3, n 1
(II) p0 = 0.75, pn = (epn1 /3)1/2 , n 1
(III) p0 = 0.5, pn = 3pn1 , n 1
(IV) p0 = 0.5, pn = cos(pn1 ), n 1
34. Consider the function f (x) = e6x + 3(ln(2))2 e2x (ln(8))e4x (ln(2))3 . Use Newtons
method with p0 = 0 to approximate a zero of f . Generate terms until |pn+1 pn | < 0.0002.
Construct the Aitkens 2 sequence {
pn }. Is the convergence improved?
(0)

(1)

35. Let g(x) = cos(x 1) and p0 = 2. Use Steffensens method to find p0 .

(0)

(1)

(2)

36. Let g(x) = 1 + sin2 (x) and p0 = 2. Use Steffensens method to find p0 and p0 .
(0)

(0)

37. Steffensens method is applied to a function g(x) using p0 = 1 and p2 = 3 to obtain

(1)
(0)
p0 = 0.75. What is p1 ?

(0)
(0)
38. Steffensens method is applied to a function g(x) using p0 = 1 and p1 = 2 to obtain
(1)
(0)
p0 = 2.7802. What is p2 ?
IPC30 September 2010
6