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In numerical analysis, a root-finding algorithm is an algorithm for finding zeros, also called "roots", of continuous functions. A zero of a function f is a number x such that f ( x ) = 0 . As, generally, the zeros of a function cannot be computed exactly nor expressed in closed form , root-finding algorithms provide approximations to zeros.
Most root-finding algorithms can find some real roots, but cannot certify having found all the roots. Methods for finding all complex roots, such as Aberth method can provide the real roots. However, because of the numerical instability of polynomials (see Wilkinson's polynomial), they may need arbitrary-precision arithmetic for deciding which ...
An important application is Newton–Raphson division, which can be used to quickly find the reciprocal of a number a, using only multiplication and subtraction, that is to say the number x such that 1 / x = a. We can rephrase that as finding the zero of f(x) = 1 / x − a. We have f ′ (x) = − 1 / x 2 . Newton's ...
(Stieltjes also modeled the positions of zeros of polynomials as solutions to electrostatic problems.) Inside the formula of the Aberth method one can find elements of Newton's method and the Durand–Kerner method. Details for an efficient implementation, esp. on the choice of good initial approximations, can be found in Bini (1996). [3]
In various areas of mathematics, the zero set of a function is the set of all its zeros. More precisely, if f : X → R {\displaystyle f:X\to \mathbb {R} } is a real-valued function (or, more generally, a function taking values in some additive group ), its zero set is f − 1 ( 0 ) {\displaystyle f^{-1}(0)} , the inverse image of { 0 ...
The theorem is used to find all rational roots of a polynomial, if any. It gives a finite number of possible fractions which can be checked to see if they are roots. If a rational root x = r is found, a linear polynomial ( x – r ) can be factored out of the polynomial using polynomial long division , resulting in a polynomial of lower degree ...
For polynomials with real coefficients, it is often useful to bound only the real roots. It suffices to bound the positive roots, as the negative roots of p(x) are the positive roots of p(–x). Clearly, every bound of all roots applies also for real roots. But in some contexts, tighter bounds of real roots are useful.
The number of positive real roots is at most the number of sign changes in the sequence of polynomial's coefficients (omitting zero coefficients), and the difference between the root count and the sign change count is always even. In particular, when the number of sign changes is zero or one, then there are exactly zero or one positive roots.