CHE 358

Numerical Methods
for Engineers

Dr. Martinson Addo Nartey

Credit: Dr. K. Mensah-Darkwa

Lesson-03
Roots and Optimization
 Roots

A function of a single variable illustrating the difference between roots and optima

b  b 2  4ac Thus Roots

x ; therefore become
Back in the day, 2a the zeros an
f ( x)  ax 2  bx  c  0 equation
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 Roots
• “Roots” problems occur when some function f can be
written in terms of one or more dependent variables x

• The value of x that makes f(x) = 0, is the root of the

equation

• These problems often occur when a design problem presents

an implicit equation for a required parameter.

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 Methods

Roots

Graphical Bracketing Open

False Newton- Secant

Bisection
Position Raphson Method

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Fundamental principles used in design problems

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 6

Graphical Methods
 Graphical Methods
• A simple method for obtaining the estimate of the root of
the equation f(x)=0 is to make a plot of the function and
observe where it crosses the x-axis.
• Illustration of a number of general ways that a root may
occur in an interval prescribed by a lower bound xl and
an upper bound xu

a) Same sign, no roots

b) Different sign, one root
c) Same sign, two roots
d) Different sign, three roots

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 Graphical Methods
• Same sign, no roots • Same sign, two roots

If both 𝑓(𝑥𝑙 ) and 𝑓(𝑥𝑢 ) have same sign, either there will be no roots or there will be
an even number of roots
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 Graphical Methods
• Different sign, one root • Different sign, three root

If the function has different signs at the end points, there will be an odd number of
roots.
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10

Bracketing Method
 Bracketing Method
• Bracketing methods are based on making two initial guesses
that “bracket” the root - that is, are on either side of the root.

• Brackets are formed by finding two guesses xl and xu where

the sign of the function changes; that is,
where f(xl) f(xu) < 0

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 Bisection Method
Theorem
 If a function changes sign over an interval, the function
value at the midpoint is evaluated.

 The location of the root is then determined as lying within

the subinterval where the sign change occurs.
i.e.. f(xl) f(xu) < 0

o The absolute error is reduced by a factor of 2 for each

iteration.

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Bisection Method

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 Bisection Method
Approximate percent relative error

A benefit of the bisection method is that the number of

iterations required to attain an absolute error can be
computed before starting the computation, using

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 Bisection Method
Example 1
Use bisection method to estimate 𝑥 3 = 20. Take 𝑥𝑙 = 1, 𝑥𝑢 =
4 for 5 iterations.

• Try to find the roots of 2 using 1 and 2 as the initial

guesses.

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 False Position
The false position method is another bracketing method, also
called linear interpolation

Theorem
 It determines the next guess not by splitting the bracket in
half but by connecting the endpoints with a straight line and
determining the location of the intercept of the straight line
(xr).
 The value of xr then replaces whichever of the two initial
guesses yields a function value with the same sign as f(xr).

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 False Position
 False-position formula f (x u )(x l  x u )
xr  xu 
f (x l )  f (x u )



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 Bisection vs. False Position
• Bisection does not take into account the shape of the
function; this can be good or bad depending on the function!
f (x)  x 110 𝑎𝑡 𝑥𝑙 = 0; 𝑥𝑢 = 1.3

𝐵𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑦𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑𝑠:

𝐹𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑒 𝑃𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑦𝑖𝑒𝑙𝑑𝑠:

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 False Position
Example
 Given the function below, use the false position approach to
determine the root(s) of the function. [𝑐𝑑 = 0.25 𝑘𝑔/𝑚,
𝑡 = 4𝑠; 𝑣 = 36 𝑚/𝑠; 𝑔 = 9.81 𝑚/𝑠 ]

 Solution:

f (x u )(x l  x u )
xr  xu 
f (x l )  f (x u )

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 Homework
Determine the roots of the equation below
(a) Bisection Method
(b) False Position Method
Submission date: 27/05/21 before 12noon

f ( x)  12  21x  18 x  2.75 x 2 3

xl  1
xu  0
 s  1% 20
21

Open Method
 Open Methods
• Open methods differ from bracketing methods, in that open
methods require only a single starting value or two starting
values that do not necessarily bracket a root.

o Open methods may diverge as the computation progresses,

but when they do converge, they usually do so much faster
than bracketing methods.

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 Newton-Raphson Method
Based on forming a tangent line to the f(x) curve at some
guess value x, then following the tangent line to where it
crosses the x-axis.

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 Newton-Raphson Method

f (x i )  0
f (x i ) 
'

x i  x i1
f (x i )
x i1  x i  '
f (x i )
xi 1  xi
a  100%
xi 1 24
 Newton-Raphson Method
Example:
Using the N-R method, compute the root of 𝑥 3 − 20. Take
𝑥𝑜 = 3

Solution

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 The Secant Methods
• A potential problem in implementing the Newton-Raphson
method is the evaluation of the derivative - there are certain
functions whose derivatives may be difficult or inconvenient
to evaluate.

• For these cases, the derivative can be approximated by a

backward finite divided difference:

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The Secant Methods

f (x i1 )  f (x i )
f (x i ) 
'

x i1  x i



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 The Secant Methods
• Substitution of this approximation for the derivative to the
Newton-Raphson method equation gives:

f (x i )x i1  x i 
x i1  x i 
f (x i1 )  f (x i )

• NB - this method requires two initial estimates of x but does

not require an analytical expression of the derivative.
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 Modified Secant Methods
• Rather than using two arbitrary values to estimate the
derivative, an alternative approach involves a fractional
perturbation of the independent variable to estimate f(x);

d xi f (xi )
xi+1 = xi -
f (xi + d xi ) - f (xi )
 where δ = a small perturbation fraction

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 Secant Methods
• Example
Estimate the roots of 𝒇 𝒙 = 𝒙𝟑 − 𝟐𝟎. Take x0 = 4; x1 = 5.

• Solution
i=1; x2 = 3.353; relative approximate error = 63.92%
i=2; x3 = 3.059; relative approximate error = 9.691%

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