Section 16.

Newtons Method

Apply Newtons Method to find all the roots of the following functions or to find all real solutions
to the equation. For the equations involving trigonometric functions, you may graph both sides of
the equation on the same pair of axes to find a good initial guess. You may stop Newtons
Method when |x n1 x n | 0. 01.

1. f x x 3 7x 20.
Note: if you have found one root for a cubic, you may use synthetic division (or long
division) to factor the cubic into a linear factor and a quadratic factor. At this point, you may
use the quadratic formula to find the other two roots. You need not apply Newtons Method
to find the other two roots!
2. f x x 3 3x 2 28x 13.
3. f x x 4 2x 10.
4. x x 2 1.
5. cosx 1 x.
3
6. sinx 1 x 2 .

Sketch the graph of the following functions using the outline found in Section 14. You will
need Newtons Method to approximate some of the critical or inflection points. Once you
find one root in the cubic, find the other two as explained above, using the quadratic
formula. (Just do any 3 out of the 5; peek at the pictures and see which ones you would like
to do!)

x 52x 1
2x 2 9x 5 2 11x 7
2
7. y
x 2x 3 x x6 x2 x 6
y / 11x 214x 592 ; y // 2 11x 21x 3 177x3 17 ;
2 3 2

x 2 x 3 x 2 x 3
window: 15, 15 15, 15.
2x 7 2
4x 2 28x 49 4 24x 57
2
8. y
x 1x 2 x x2 x2 x 2
32x 74x 5
; y // 6 8x 57x 3 105x 3 73 ;
3 2
y/
x 1 x 2
2 2
x 1 x 2
window: 15, 15 30, 20.
2x 7 2
4x 228x 49 4 28x 41
2
9. y
x 2
2
x 2 x2 2
22x 77x 4 //
; y 2 28x 123x 168x 82 ;
3 2
y/ 2 3
x 2
2
x 2
2

window: 15, 15 1, 30.

Section 16. Newtons Method 62

 2x 7x 1 2x 2 5x 7 2 5x 11
10. y
x2 2 x2 2 x2 2
y / 5x 2 22x 2 10 ; y // 2 5x 33x2 30x 22 ;
2 3 2
3
x 2 x 2
window: 15, 15 5, 5
143 x 75
x 3x 2x 8 x 3
9x 2
2x 48
11. y x 3 24
1
2x 3 2 4x 2 12x 9 4 4x 12x 9
y / 2x 9x 58x3 186 , y // 2 143x 471
3 2
;
2x 3 2x 3 4
window: 15, 15 8, 8

Section 16. Newtons Method 63