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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.
Given a continuous function defined from [,] to such that () (), where at the cost of one query one can access the values of () on any given .And, given a pre-specified target precision >, a root-finding algorithm is designed to solve the following problem with the least amount of queries as possible:
In this case a and b are said to bracket a root since, by the intermediate value theorem, the continuous function f must have at least one root in the interval (a, b). At each step the method divides the interval in two parts/halves by computing the midpoint c = (a+b) / 2 of the interval and the value of the function f(c) at that point.
The main objective of interval arithmetic is to provide a simple way of calculating upper and lower bounds of a function's range in one or more variables. These endpoints are not necessarily the true supremum or infimum of a range since the precise calculation of those values can be difficult or impossible; the bounds only need to contain the function's range as a subset.
It follows that the standard way of computing real roots is to compute first disjoint intervals, called isolating intervals, such that each one contains exactly one real root, and together they contain all the roots. This computation is called real-root isolation. Having an isolating interval, one may use fast numerical methods, such as Newton ...
Then for each interval (A(x), M(x)) in the list, the algorithm remove it from the list; if the number of sign variations of the coefficients of A is zero, there is no root in the interval, and one passes to the next interval. If the number of sign variations is one, the interval defined by () and () is an isolating interval.
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b k is the current iterate, i.e., the current guess for the root of f. a k is the "contrapoint," i.e., a point such that f(a k) and f(b k) have opposite signs, so the interval [a k, b k] contains the solution. Furthermore, |f(b k)| should be less than or equal to |f(a k)|, so that b k is a better guess for the unknown solution than a k.