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Secant Method (L3)

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37 views5 pages

Secant Method (L3)

Uploaded by

shahzad akram
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Secant Method

The secant method is a root-finding procedure in numerical analysis that uses a series of
roots of secant lines to better approximate a root of a function f. Let us learn more about the
second method, its formula, advantages and limitations, and secant method solved example
with detailed explanations in this article.

What is a Secant Method?


The tangent line to the curve of y = f(x) with the point of tangency (x 0,
f(x0) was used in Newton’s approach. The graph of the tangent line about
x = α is essentially the same as the graph of y = f(x) when x 0 ≈ α. The
root of the tangent line was used to approximate α.

Consider employing an approximating line based on ‘interpolation’. Let’s


pretend we have two root estimations of root α, say, x0 and x1. Then, we
have a linear function

q(x) = a0 + a1x

using q(x0) = f (x0), q(x1) = f (x1).

This line is also known as a secant line. Its formula is as follows:


Secant Method Steps

The secant method procedures are given below using equation (1).

Step 1: Initialization

x0 and x1 of α are taken as initial guesses.

Step 2: Iteration

In the case of n = 1, 2, 3, …,

until a specific criterion for termination has been met (i.e., The desired accuracy of the
answer or the maximum number of iterations has been attained).
Secant Method Convergence

If the initial values x0 and x1 are close enough to the root, the secant method iterates
xn and converges to a root of function f. The order of convergence is given by φ, where

φ=1+√5 /2≈1.618,

Which is the golden ratio.

The convergence is particularly superlinear, but not really quadratic. This


solution is only valid under certain technical requirements, such as f being
two times continuously differentiable and the root being simple in the
question (i.e., having multiplicity 1).

There is no certainty that the secant method will converge if the


beginning values are not close enough to the root. For instance, if the
function f is differentiable on the interval [x 0, x1], and there is a point on
the interval where f’ =0, the algorithm may not converge.

Secant Method Advantages and Disadvantages

The secant method has the following advantages:

 It converges quicker than a linear rate, making it more convergent than the
bisection method.
 It does not necessitate the usage of the function’s derivative, which is not
available in a number of applications.
 Unlike Newton’s technique, which requires two function evaluations in every
iteration, it only requires one.

The secant method has the following drawbacks:

 The secant method may not converge.


 The computed iterates have no guaranteed error bounds.
 If f0(α) = 0, it is likely to be challenging. This means that when x = α, the x-
axis is tangent to the graph of y = f(x).
 Newton’s approach is more easily generalized to new ways for solving
nonlinear simultaneous systems of equations.

Secant Method Solved Example

Example:

Compute two iterations for the function f(x) = x3 – 5x + 1 = 0 using the secant method,
in which the real roots of the equation f(x) lies in the interval (0, 1).
Solution:

Using the given data, we have,

x0 = 0, x1 = 1, and

f(x0) = 1, f(x1) = -3

Using the secant method formula, we can write

x2 = x1 – [(x0 – x1) / (f(x0) – f(x1))]f(x1)

Now, substitute the known values in the formula,

= 1 – [(0 – 1) / ((1-(-3))](-3)

= 0.25.

Therefore, f(x2) = – 0.234375

Performing the second approximation, ,

x3 = x2 – [( x1 – x2) / (f(x1) – f(x2))]f(x2)

=(- 0.234375) – [(1 – 0.25)/(-3 – (- 0.234375))](- 0.234375)

= 0.186441

Hence, f(x3) = 0.074276

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