Math 305, Fall 2022

Exercise Problems for Week 2

October 12, 2022

√
1. Write down three functions g1 (x), g2 (x), g3 (x) such that 3 3 is a fixed-
point of each one of these three functions, and the simple iterations defined
by means of them satisfy the following:
√
• (xk ) such that xk+1 = g1 (xk ) does not converge to 3 3 for all x0 ∈ R
√
unless xk = 3 3 for some integer k ≥ 0.
√
• (yk ) such that yk+1 = g2 (yk ) converges to 3 3 linearly for all y0 ∈ R in
√
an open interval containing 3 3.
√
• (zk ) such that zk+1 = g3 (zk ) converges to 3 3 quadratically for all z0 ∈ R
√
in an open interval containing 3 3.

2. Let f : R → R be a function that is m-times continuously differentiable

(m ≥ 1) such that

f (j) (α) = 0 for j = 0, 1, 2, . . . , m − 1 and f (m) (α) 6= 0.

Prove that the modified Newton’s method with the update rule

f (xk )
xk+1 = xk − m
f 0 (xk )

for k ≥ 0 for a given x0 ∈ R, when it converges to α and assuming all xk 6= α,

it converges with order at least 2.

1
3. Let f : R → R be three times continuously differentiable, and x∗ ∈ R be
a root such that f (x∗ ) = f 00 (x∗ ) = 0, f 0 (x∗ ) 6= 0.
Show that there exists a δ > 0 such that the sequence (xk ) by Newton’s
method converges to x∗ with order 3 for all x0 ∈ [x∗ − δ, x∗ + δ].

4.-6. Solve questions 1.4, 1.8, 1.11 from the textbook (by Endre Suli and
David Mayers).