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1.C. An Example of The False Position Method

This document describes the false position method for finding the root of a function. The method works by iteratively narrowing the interval that contains the root using linear approximations between two points where the function has opposite signs. An example is shown applying the method over 15 iterations to find the root of the cubic equation x3 + x + 1 = 0, with the interval converging to -0.682327804. Additional references are provided for more information on the false position method and a proof of its convergence.

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48 views3 pages

1.C. An Example of The False Position Method

This document describes the false position method for finding the root of a function. The method works by iteratively narrowing the interval that contains the root using linear approximations between two points where the function has opposite signs. An example is shown applying the method over 15 iterations to find the root of the cubic equation x3 + x + 1 = 0, with the interval converging to -0.682327804. Additional references are provided for more information on the false position method and a proof of its convergence.

Uploaded by

sami khattak
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© © All Rights Reserved
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1.C.

An Example of the False Position Method

Versions of the Method of False Position, which gives successive approximations converging to
a solution for an equation of the form f(x) = 0, were known and used in ancient Egyptian and
Babylonian mathematics. The objective here is to describe the level of sophistication needed
to develop such procedures by using the method to find the unique real root of the cubic
equation
      .
This method applies particularly well in situations where there are two points a and b such
that f(a) and f(b) are nonzero with different signs and there is exactly one value of r between a
and b such that f(r) = 0. For the given example we have f (– 1) < 0 < f (– ½) and the
function f is strictly increasing (because its derivative is always positive). Much of this
discussion is adapted from the following site;
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~pitman/courses/mth437/na/node20.html

Suppose now that we are given a reasonable function f satisfying the conditions in the
preceding paragraph. One naïve way to search for a root is to pretend that the function is
linear between a and b and to find the value c for which this linear function’s value is
zero. In graphical terms, c is the x – intercept of the line between (a, f(a)) and (b, f(b)). To
find c, we first need to write out the equation for the line joining (a, f(a)) and (b, f(b)):

If we set y = 0 and solve for x, we obtain the x – intercept, which is c:

The next step is to evaluate f(c) and determine whether it is positive or negative or zero. If it is
zero, then obviously we are done; otherwise, we let c replace either a or b, taking the one for
which the sign of f(c) is equal to the sign of f(a) or f(b). The effect of this replacement is to
narrow the search for the root to a slightly smaller interval. We can now repeat this procedure
on the smaller interval, obtaining another, even smaller interval, and so forth. As suggested by
the drawing below, in favorable cases the values for c obtained at the successive steps will
converge to the root of the equation f(x) = 0.

(Source: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/MethodofFalsePosition.html)
Here is a table describing 15 iterations of the method for the cubic equation x3 + x + 1 = 0. As
indicated above, the initial interval is [– 1, ½ ], and we know that the values of the polynomial at
the left and right end points are negative and positive respectively
respectively.

a b f(a) f(b) c f(c)


-1 -0.5
0.5 -1 0.375 -0.636363636 0.105935387
-1 -0.636363636
0.636363636 -1 0.10593539 -0.671195652 0.026428288
-1 -0.671195652
0.671195652 -1 0.02642829 -0.679661646 0.006375484
-1 -0.679661646
0.679661646 -1 0.00637548 -0.68169102 0.001525358
-1 -0.68169102
0.68169102 -1 0.00152536 -0.682175816 0.000364224
-1 -0.682175816
0.682175816 -1 0.00036422 -0.682291533 8.6928E-05
8.6928E
-1 -0.682291533
0.682291533 -1 8.6928E-05 -0.682319148 2.07444E-05
2.07444E
-1 -0.682319148
0.682319148 -1 2.0744E-05 -0.682325738 4.9503E-06
4.9503E
-1 -0.682325738
0.682325738 -1 4.9503E-06 -0.682327311 1.1813E-06
1.1813E
-1 -0.682327311
0.682327311 -1 1.1813E-06 -0.682327686 2.81893E-07
2.81893E
-1 -0.682327686
0.682327686 -1 2.8189E-07 -0.682327776 6.72684E-08
6.72684E
-1 -0.682327776
0.682327776 -1 6.7268E-08 -0.682327797 1.60523E-08
1.60523E
-1 -0.682327797
0.682327797 -1 1.6052E-08 -0.682327802 3.83058E-09
3.83058E
-1 -0.682327802
0.682327802 -1 3.8306E-09 -0.682327803 9.14093E-10
9.14093E
-1 -0.682327803
0.682327803 -1 9.1409E-10 -0.682327804 2.18131E-10
2.18131E

In this example all the replacements involve the right hand endpoint
endpoint. On the other hand,
hand as
suggested by the drawing below
below, there are cases in which successive replacements involve
both right and left hand endpoints
endpoints.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_position_method
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_position_method)
In addition to the references cited in Unit 1 of the notes, some additional information and
comments about this method appear on pages 73 – 75 of the following standard textbook on
numerical methods:
th
R. L. Burden and J. D. Faires, Numerical Analysis (9 Ed.). Brooks – Cole,
Boston, 2011. ISBN – 10: 0 – 538 – 73351 – 9.

Also, here is an online reference which includes a proof that the method’s iterated approximations
actually converges to the desired solution:

http://astro.temple.edu/~dhill001/course/numanalfall2009/False%20Position%20Section%202_2.pdf

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