Bisection Method

Convergence Criteria:
1. Need two initial values, [a, b] which
satisfy Intermediate Value Theorem
f (a) f (b)  0 .

Formula:
2. Iterate using
Iteration Calculator
Formula Formula
ai  bi
ci  , i  0,1, 2, ... ( A  B)  2
2

f ( xi ) f (X )

3. Position of A and B in order to

calculate c 0 .
i ai ci bi f (ai ) f (ci )

0 A B
 4. Position of A and B in order to
calculate c1 .
i ai ci bi f (ai ) f (ci )

0
1 A B

5. Repeat the same pattern for position of A

and B in order to calculate ci .

Iteration:
6. If f (ai ) f (ci )  0 then {root is in [ai , ci ] }
ai 1  ai {next a  previous a }
bi 1  ci {next b  previous c }

7. Else f (ai ) f (ci )  0 then {root is in [ci , bi ] }

ai 1  ci {next a  previous c }
bi 1  bi {next b  previous b }
Stopping Criteria:
8. Repeat the process until f (ci )  0 or
| f (ci ) |  or | bi  ai |  .

Note:
If the stopping criteria is not specified in a
particular problem, then from those three
criteria, we will employ the one whenever
comes first.

Example
Find the root of x  ln x  0 by using bisection
method. Iterate until | f (ci ) |   0.005 over the
interval [0.2, 1]
Solution:
(a) f ( x)  x  ln x
= X  ln X (Calculator formula)
=
[a, b]  [0.2, 1]
ai  bi
ci 
2 , i  0, 1, 2, ... (Iteration Formula)
 = ( A  B)  2 (Calculator Formula)
=

i ai ci bi f (ai ) f (ci )

0 0.2 0.6 1  1.409 0.089

1 0.2 0.4 0.6  1.409  0.516
2 0.4 0.5 0.6  0.516  0.193
3 0.5 0.550 0.6  0.193  0.048
4 0.550 0.575 0.6  0.048 0.022
5 0.550 0.563 0.575  0.048 0.011
6 0.563 0.569 0.575  0.011 0.005
7 0.563 0.566 0.569  0.011  0.003

Since | f (c7 ) | 0.003    0.005 , so the root of

x  ln x  0 is  c7  0.566 .