Open Methods

For the bracketing methods the root is located within an interval prescribed by a lower and an upper bound.
Repeated application of these methods always results in closer estimates of the true value of the root. Such
methods are said to be convergent because they move closer to the truth as the computation progresses.

In contrast, the open methods are based on formulas that require only a single starting value of x or two starting
values that do not necessarily bracket the root. As such, they sometimes diverge or move away from the true root
as the computation progresses. However, when the open methods converge, they usually do so much more quickly
than the bracketing methods.
 *

Or 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑥 = 0 add x to both sides 𝑥 = 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑥 + 𝑥

The utility of Eq. * is that it provides a formula to predict a new value of x as a function of an old
value of x. Thus, given an initial guess at the root xi, Eq. * can be used to compute a new estimate
xi+1 as expressed by the iterative formula
Example

𝑥 = 𝑒 −𝑥

0.692201 − 0.367879
𝜀𝑎 = × 100
0.692201
Perhaps the most widely used of all root-locating formulas is the Newton-Raphson equation.

If the initial guess at the root is xi, a tangent can be extended from the point [xi, f(xi)]. The point
where this tangent crosses the x axis usually represents an improved estimate of the root.

the first derivative at x is equivalent to the slope:

which can be rearranged to yield

Newton-Raphson formula
Example

Use the Newton-Raphson method to estimate the root of 𝑓 𝑥 = 𝑒 −𝑥 − 𝑥, employing an initial

guess of 𝑥0 = 0.

Newton-Raphson formula

iterations xi Xi+1 f(xi) f’(xi)

1 0 0.5 1 -2
2 0.5 0.566311 0.106531 -1.60653
3 0.566311 0.567143 0.00130451 -1.56762
4 0.567143 0.567143 1.9648e-7 -1.56714
5 0.567143 0.567143 …
A potential problem in implementing the Newton-Raphson method is the evaluation of the derivative.
Although this is not inconvenient for polynomials and many other functions, there are certain functions
whose derivatives may be extremely difficult or inconvenient to evaluate. For these cases, the derivative
can be approximated by a backward finite divided difference

This approximation can be substituted into Newton-Raphson formula

to yield the following iterative equation:
Graphical depiction of the secant
method. This technique is
similar to the Newton-Raphson
technique in the sense
that an estimate of the root is
predicted by extrapolating a
tangent of the function to the
x axis. However, the secant
method uses a difference rather
than a derivative to estimate the
slope.

Notice that the approach requires

two initial estimates of x. However, because f(x) is
not required to change signs between
the estimates, it is not classifi ed as a bracketing
method.