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Lecture 05: Roots and

Optimization: Bracketing
Methods

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Roots of Equations

• Roots are sometimes called the zeros of the equation.

• Methods:
– Direct methods
– Approximate solution techniques

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Roots of Equations
• An approximate solution technique  graphical methods.
• Plot the function and determine where it crosses the x axis.
• Although graphical methods are useful for obtaining rough
estimates of roots, they are limited because of their lack of
precision.
• An alternative approach is to use trial and error.
• This technique consists of guessing a value of x and
evaluating whether f(x) is zero.
• If not (as is almost always the case), another guess is made,
and f(x) is again evaluated to determine whether the new
value provides a better estimate of the root.

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Optimization
• Besides roots, another feature of interest to engineers
and scientists are a function’s minimum and maximum
values  referred to as optimization.
• From a numerical standpoint, such optimization methods
are similar in spirit to the root-location methods.
• Both involve guessing and searching for a location on a
function.
• Root location involves searching for the location where
the function equals zero.
• In contrast, optimization involves searching for the
function’s extreme points.
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Difference between Roots and

Optima

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Roots: Bracketing Methods

• Example
Medical studies have established that a bungee jumper’s chances of
sustaining a significant vertebrae injury increase significantly if the
free-fall velocity exceeds 36 m/s after 4 s of free fall. Your boss at
the bungee-jumping company wants you to determine the mass at
which this criterion is exceeded given a drag coefficient of 0.25
kg/m.
You know from your previous studies that the following analytical
solution can be used to predict fall velocity as a function of time:

Try as you might, you cannot manipulate this equation to explicitly

solve for m  you cannot isolate the mass on the left side of the
equation.
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Roots: Bracketing Methods

• Example
– Solution

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

of the equation.

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Roots in Engineering and

Science

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Example 1: Graphical Methods

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Graphical Methods

• Graphical techniques are of limited practical value

because they are not very precise.
• However, graphical methods can be utilized to obtain
rough estimates of roots.
• These estimates can be employed as starting guesses
for numerical methods discussed later in this lecture.
• Also, graphical interpretations are useful for
understanding the properties of the functions and
anticipating the pitfalls of the numerical methods.

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Graphical Methods

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Graphical Methods
• In general, if f(xl) and f(xu) have opposite signs, there are an
odd number of roots in the interval.
• If f(xl) and f(xu) have the same sign, there are either no roots
or an even number of roots between the values.
• Although these generalizations are usually true, there are
cases where they do not hold.
• For example, functions that are tangential to the x axis and
discontinuous functions can violate these principles.
• An example of a function that is tangential to the axis is the
cubic equation f(x) = (x − 2)(x − 2)(x − 4).
• Notice that x = 2 makes two terms in this polynomial equal to
zero. Mathematically, x = 2 is called a multiple root.
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Example 2: Graphical Methods

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Example 2: Graphical Methods

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Numerical Methods

• Two major classes of methods available:

– Bracketing methods  As the name implies, these are based on
two initial guesses that bracket the root that are on either side of
the root.
– Open methods  These methods can involve one or more initial
guesses, but there is no need for them to bracket the root.

• For well-posed problems, the bracketing methods always

work but converge slowly.
• In contrast, the open methods do not always work (i.e.,
they can diverge), but when they do they usually
converge quicker.

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Bracketing Methods

• These methods exploit the fact that a function typically

changes sign in the vicinity of a root.
• These techniques are called bracketing methods
because two initial guesses for the root are required.
• As the name implies, these guesses must “bracket,” or
be on either side of, the root.

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Incremental Search

• In general, if f(x) is real and continuous in the interval

from xl to xu and f(xl) and f(xu) have opposite signs, i.e.,
f(xl) f(xu) < 0, then there is at least one real root between
xl and xu.
• Incremental search methods capitalize on this
observation by locating an interval where the function
changes sign.

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Incremental Search

• Then the location of the sign change (and consequently,

the root) is identified more precisely by dividing the
interval into a number of subintervals.
• Each of these subintervals is searched to locate the sign
change.
• The process is repeated and the root estimate refined by
dividing the subintervals into finer increments.

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Incremental Search

• A potential problem with an incremental search is the

choice of the increment length.
• If the length is too small, the search can be very time
consuming.
• On the other hand, if the length is too great, there is a
possibility that closely spaced roots might be missed .
• The problem is compounded by the possible existence of
multiple roots.

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Incremental Search

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Example 3 : Incremental Search

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Example 3 : Incremental Search

• The foregoing example illustrates that brute-force methods such as

incremental search are not foolproof.
• You would be wise to supplement such automatic techniques with
any other information that provides insight into the location of the
roots.
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Bisection Method
• The bisection method is also known as binary chopping,
interval halving, or Bolzano’s method.
• It is a variation of the incremental search method in
which the interval is always divided in half.
• 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.
• The subinterval then becomes the interval for the next
iteration.
• The process is repeated until the root is known to the
required precision.
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Bisection Method

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Bisection Method

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Example 4: Bisection Method

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Example 4: Bisection Method

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Termination Criteria and Error

Estimates

• When εa becomes less than a prespecified stopping

criterion εs, the computation is terminated.

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Example 5: Bisection Method

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Example 5: Bisection Method

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Termination Criteria and Error

Estimates
• It can be demonstrated that |εa| will always be greater
than |εt | for bisection.
• This is due to the fact that each time an approximate root
is located using bisection as xr = (xl + xu)/2, we know that
the true root lies somewhere within an interval of Δx = xu
− xl .
• Therefore, the root must lie within ±Δx/2 of our estimate.

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Termination Criteria and Error

Estimates

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Termination Criteria and Error

Estimates

Provides an exact upper

bound on
the true error
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Termination Criteria and Error

Estimates
• It is also possible to calculate an error estimate on the
basis of our initial guesses—that is, on our first iteration.

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Termination Criteria and Error

Estimates
• Another benefit of the bisection method is that the
number of iterations required to attain an absolute error
can be computed a priori—i.e., before starting the
computation.

Ea,d is the desired

error

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Example 5: Bisection Method

(Cont’d)

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Bisection Algorithm

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Minimizing Function Evaluations

(n+1) function
evaluations are
performed, rather
than 2n

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False Position Method

• False position is also known as the linear interpolation

method.
• It is very similar to bisection with the exception that it
uses a different strategy to come up with its new root
estimate.
• False position is an alternative based on a graphical
insight.
• A shortcoming of the bisection method is that, in dividing
the interval from xl to xu into equal halves, no account is
taken of the magnitudes of f(xl) and f(xu).

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False Position Method

• Rather than bisecting the
interval, it locates the root
by joining f(xl) and f(xu)
with a straight line.
• The intersection of this
line with the x axis
represents an improved
estimate of the root.
• Thus, the shape of the
function influences the
new root estimate.

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False Position Method

• The fact that the replacement of the curve by a straight

line gives a “false position” of the root is the origin of the
name, method of false position, or in Latin, regula falsi.

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Derivation of the Method of False

Position

• The later involves one less function evaluation and one

less multiplication than the former.
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Example 6: False-Position Method

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Example 6: False-Position Method

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Comparison of Relative Errors

• The error for false position

decreases much faster than
for bisection because of the
more efficient scheme for root
location in the false-position
method.

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Pitfalls of False-Position Method

• A major weakness of the false-position method: its one-

sidedness.
• That is, as iterations are proceeding, one of the
bracketing points will tend to stay fixed.
• This can lead to poor convergence, particularly for
functions with significant curvature.

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Example 7: A Case where Bisection

is Preferable to False Position

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Example 7: A Case where Bisection

is Preferable to False Position

• After five iterations, the true error has only been reduced
to about 59 percent.
• In addition, note that εa < εt  the approximate error is
misleading.
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Example 7: A Case where Bisection

is Preferable to False Position

• The curve violates the

premise upon which false
position was based—that is, if
f(xl) is much closer to zero
than f(xu), then the root is
closer to xl than to xu.
• Because of the shape of the
present function, the opposite
is true.

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Modified False Position

• One way to mitigate the “one-sided” nature of false

position is to have the algorithm detect when one of the
bounds is stuck.
• If this occurs, the function value at the stagnant bound
can be divided in half.
• This is called the modified false-position method.

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Modified False Position

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Assignment-05

• Problems 5.1, 5.4, 5.9, 5.15, 5.17.

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