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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.
The fundamental theorem of algebra shows that any non-zero polynomial has a number of roots at most equal to its degree, and that the number of roots and the degree are equal when one considers the complex roots (or more generally, the roots in an algebraically closed extension) counted with their multiplicities. [3]
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 ...
In numerical analysis, the secant method is a root-finding algorithm that uses a succession of roots of secant lines to better approximate a root of a function f. The secant method can be thought of as a finite-difference approximation of Newton's method , so it is considered a quasi-Newton method .
One advantage of this proof over the others is that it shows not only that a polynomial must have a zero but the number of its zeros is equal to its degree (counting, as usual, multiplicity). Another use of Rouché's theorem is to prove the open mapping theorem for analytic functions. We refer to the article for the proof.
The graph crosses the x-axis at roots of odd multiplicity and does not cross it at roots of even multiplicity. A non-zero polynomial function is everywhere non-negative if and only if all its roots have even multiplicity and there exists an x 0 {\displaystyle x_{0}} such that f ( x 0 ) > 0 {\displaystyle f(x_{0})>0} .
If the coefficients a i of a random polynomial are independently and identically distributed with a mean of zero, most complex roots are on the unit circle or close to it. In particular, the real roots are mostly located near ±1, and, moreover, their expected number is, for a large degree, less than the natural logarithm of the degree.
The graph of the zero polynomial, f(x) = 0, is the x-axis. In the case of polynomials in more than one indeterminate, a polynomial is called homogeneous of degree n if all of its non-zero terms have degree n. The zero polynomial is homogeneous, and, as a homogeneous polynomial, its degree is undefined.