5.2.

Secant and Regula-Falsi Methods

Introduction
Secant and Regula-Falsi methods are used to determine a real root of a non-linear
equation and these two methods are closely resembles with Bisection
Method.

Secant Method
Let and are two approximations to a real root of the equation .
Then and be two points on the curve .
Join the points and by means of a secant line (chord) as shown in the
figure. Denote and . Now, the equation of the secant
line is given by

We approximate the curve by the secant line

and take the point of intersection of with the
-axis as the next approximation to the root.

Substituting in and solving for , we get

The next approximation, , to the root is given by

Since we are utilizing two points and in approximation of the root, this
method is a two point iteration method and is called the Secant Method or the
Chord Method. At any stage of iterations, we do not test whether the root lies in
the interval . That is, we use the last two consecutive iterations to
obtain the next approximation to the root.
We can notice the following points in utilizing the Secant Method:

 The method requires two initial approximations and to the root.

 The method may sometimes fail if and are far away from the root.
 The method has super linear convergence, that is, the rate of convergence of
the Secant Method is .

Regula-Falsi Method
In this method, we require that the initial approximations and to the root
are so chosen that and has opposite signs and for each ,
and has opposite signs, that is, at every stage of iteration the root lies in
the interval as shown in the figure. The secant method with this
condition will become the Method of false position or Regula-Falsi Method.

We can notice the following points in utilizing the Regula-Falsi Method:

 The method requires two initial approximations and to the root.

 The method always converges to the root.
 The rate of convergence of the Regula-Falsi Method is linear, that is, .
 Disadvantage of the Method
If the root lies initially in , then one of the end points is fixed for all
iterations which we can notice that the end point is fixed in figure (a) and
the method is of the form

while the end point fixed in figure (b) and the method is of the form
 This is the disadvantage of the method. However, it can be speeded up by
inserting the bisection iteration after few iterations of the Regula-Falsi Method.
 If Secant Method converges, then it converges faster than the Regula-Falsi
Method.

Significant digits and Round-off Errors

Real numbers like contain an infinite number of digits. In

scientific and engineering computation, we express a real number in floating
point form as

where are the numbers between and , is a positive or a

negative integer and is called exponent. Each except the
leading zeros is called significant digit (or) significant figures.

Since we cannot retain infinite number of digits in a number, we round-off the

number to, say, significant digits. To round-off a number to significant digits,

 Discard all digits to the right of the digit, if the digit is less than .
 If the digit is greater than , then increase the digit by .
 If the digit is equal to , then increase the digit by if it is odd
and leave the digit unchanged if it is even. The reason for this step is that
even numbers are more exactly divisible by many more numbers than are odd
numbers and so there will be fewer leftover errors in computations when the
rounded numbers are left even.

Ex: i) The following numbers are rounded-off to four significant figures:

 ii)

(Rounded to four significant digits)

(Rounded to three significant digits)

(Rounded to two significant digits)

(Rounded to one significant digits)

Note: The number has six significant digits.

Definition: Let be exact root and be an approximated root of the

equation . If , then
represents that accurated to significant digits.

Example 1: Use Secant Method and Regula-Falsi Method to obtain the smallest
positive root correct upto significant figures of the equation ,
first verifying that the root lies in .
Solution: Let and .

Since and , the smallest positive root of

lies in the interval
Secant Method: Let the initial approximations be and . Then
and .
Using (ii) we have

For
and
For
and
For
and
For
and
For
Therefore, a real root of the equation corrected upto five
significant figures is .
Regula-Falsi Method: Let the initial approximations be and .
Then and .
Using (ii) we have

For
and
Since , the root lies between and

Notice that the right end point is fixed and we have to use formula that

For
and

For
and

For
and

For
and

For
and

For
Therefore, a real root of the equation corrected upto five
significant figures is .
Example 2: Use Secant Method and Regula-Falsi Method to obtain the smallest
positive root correct upto decimal places of the equation , first
verifying that the root lies in .
Solution: Let and .

Since and ,
the smallest positive root of lies in the interval Let the initial
approximations be and .

Since the accuracy of three decimal places is required, we iterate until

So, we need retain at least decimal digits in our computation.

Secant Method: Using (ii) we have
For
and
For
and
For
and
For
Notice that , which is the required accuracy and
hence a real root of the equation corrected upto three decimal
places is .
Regula-Falsi Method: Using (ii) we have
For
and
Since , the root lies between and
Notice that the right end point is fixed and we have to use formula that

For
and

For
and

For
and

For

Notice that , which is the required accuracy and

hence a real root of the equation corrected upto three decimal
places is .

5.2. EXERCISES
Use Secant Method and Regula-Falsi Method to find a root of the following
equations over the given interval/initial approximations:
1)
Answer:
2)
Answer:
3)
Answer:
4)
Answer:
5)
Answer: