Bisection Method
1/18/2012
Basis of Bisection Method
Theorem An equation f(x)=0, where f(x) is a real continuous function, has at least one root between xl and xu if f(xl) f(xu) < 0.
f(x)
xN xu x
Figure 1 At least one root exists between the two points if the function is real, continuous, and changes sign.
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Basis of Bisection Method
f(x)
xN
xu
Figure 2 If function f x
does not change sign between two points, roots of the equation f x
! 0 may still exist between the two points.
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Basis of Bisection Method
f(x)
f(x)
xN
xu x
xN
xu
Figure 3 If the function f x
does not change sign between two points, there may not be any roots for the equation f x
! 0 between the two points.
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Basis of Bisection Method
f(x)
xu xN
Figure 4 If the function f x
changes sign between two points, more than one root for the equation f x
! 0 may exist between the two points.
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Algorithm for Bisection Method
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Step 1
Choose x" and xu as two guesses for the root such that f(x") f(xu) < 0, or in other words, f(x) changes sign between x" and xu. This was demonstrated in Figure 1.
f(x)
xN xu x
Figure 1
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Step 2
Estimate the root, xm of the equation f (x) = 0 as the mid point between x" and xu as
f(x)
x N x u xm = 2
xN xm xu x
Figure 5 Estimate of xm
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Step 3
Now check the following a) If f xl
f xm
0 , then the root lies between x" and xm; then x" = x" ; xu = xm. b) If f xl
f xm
" 0 , then the root lies between xm and xu; then x" = xm; xu = xu. c) If f xl
f xm
! 0 ; then the root is xm. Stop the algorithm if this is true.
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Step 4
Find the new estimate of the root
x N x u xm = 2
Find the absolute relative approximate error
a !
old x new xm m
new m
v100
where
old xm ! previous estimate of root
new xm ! current estimate of root
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Step 5
Compare the absolute relative approximate error a with the pre-specified error tolerance s .
Yes Is a "s ? No Go to Step 2 using new upper and lower guesses. Stop the algorithm
Note one should also check whether the number of iterations is more than the maximum number of iterations allowed. If so, one needs to terminate the algorithm and notify the user about it.
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Example 1
You are working for DOWN THE TOILET COMPANY that makes floats for ABC commodes. The floating ball has a specific gravity of 0.6 and has a radius of 5.5 cm. You are asked to find the depth to which the ball is submerged when floating in water.
Figure 6 Diagram of the floating ball
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Example 1 Cont.
The equation that gives the depth x to which the ball is submerged under water is given by
x 3 0.165 x 2 3.993 v10 4 ! 0
a) Use the bisection method of finding roots of equations to find the depth x to which the ball is submerged under water. Conduct three iterations to estimate the root of the above equation. b) Find the absolute relative approximate error at the end of each iteration, and the number of significant digits at least correct at the end of each iteration.
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Example 1 Cont.
From the physics of the problem, the ball would be submerged between x = 0 and x = 2R, where R = radius of the ball, that is
0 e x e 2R 0 e x e 2 0.055
0 e x e 0.11
Figure 6 Diagram of the floating ball
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Example 1 Cont.
Solution
To aid in the understanding of how this method works to find the root of an equation, the graph of f(x) is shown to the right, where
f x
! x 3 0.165 x 2 3.993 v 10- 4
Figure 7 Graph of the function f(x)
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Example 1 Cont.
Let us assume
xN! 0.00 xu ! 0.11
Check if the function changes sign between x" and xu .
f xl
! f 0
! 0
0.165 0
3.993 v10 4 ! 3.993 v10 4 f xu
! f 0.11
! 0.11
0.165 0.11
3.993 v10 4 ! 2.662 v10 4
Hence
3 2
f xl
f xu
! f 0
f 0.11
! .993 v10 4
2.662 v10 4
0 3
So there is at least on root between x" and xu, that is between 0 and 0.11
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Example 1 Cont.
Figure 8 Graph demonstrating sign change between initial limits
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Example 1 Cont.
Iteration 1 The estimate of the root is
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xN xu 0 0.11 xm ! ! ! 0.055 2 2
2
f xm
! f 0.055
! 0.055
0.165 0.055
3.993 v 10 4 ! 6.655 v 10 5 f xl
f xm
! f 0
f 0.055
! .993 v 10 4
.655 v 10 5
" 0 3 6
Hence the root is bracketed between xm and xu, that is, between 0.055 and 0.11. So, the lower and upper limits of the new bracket are
xl ! 0.055, xu ! 0.11
At this point, the absolute relative approximate error a cannot be calculated as we do not have a previous approximation.
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Example 1 Cont.
Figure 9 Estimate of the root for Iteration 1
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Example 1 Cont.
Iteration 2 The estimate of the root is
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xN xu 0.055 0.11 xm ! ! ! 0.0825 2 2
2
f x m
! f 0.0825
! 0.0825
0.165 0.0825
3.993 v 10 4 ! 1.622 v 10 4 f xl
f x m
! f 0.055
f (0.0825) ! 1.622 v 10 4
.655 v 10 5
0 6
Hence the root is bracketed between x"and xm, that is, between 0.055 and 0.0825. So, the lower and upper limits of the new bracket are
xl ! 0.055, xu ! 0.0825
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Example 1 Cont.
Figure 10 Estimate of the root for Iteration 2
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Example 1 Cont.
The absolute relative approximate error
new old xm x m a ! v 100 new xm
a at the end of Iteration 2 is
0.0825 0.055 v100 0.0825 ! 33.333%
None of the significant digits are at least correct in the estimate root of xm = 0.0825 because the absolute relative approximate error is greater than 5%.
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Example 1 Cont.
Iteration 3 The estimate of the root is
3
xN xu 0.055 0.0825 xm ! ! ! 0.06875 2 2
2
f xm
! f 0.06875
! 0.06875
0.165 0.06875
3.993 v 10 4 ! 5.563 v10 5 f xl
f xm
! f 0.055
f 0.06875
! .655 v10 5
5.563 v 10 5
0 6
Hence the root is bracketed between x"and xm, that is, between 0.055 and 0.06875. So, the lower and upper limits of the new bracket are
xl ! 0.055, xu ! 0.06875
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Example 1 Cont.
Figure 11 Estimate of the root for Iteration 3
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Example 1 Cont.
The absolute relative approximate error
new old xm xm a ! v100 new xm
a at the end of Iteration 3 is
0.06875 0.0825 v 100 0.06875 ! 20%
Still none of the significant digits are at least correct in the estimated root of the equation as the absolute relative approximate error is greater than 5%. Seven more iterations were conducted and these iterations are shown in Table 1.
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Table 1 Cont.
Table 1 Root of f(x)=0 as function of number of iterations for bisection method.
Iteration 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 xN 0.00000 0.055 0.055 0.055 0.06188 0.06188 0.06188 0.06188 0.0623 0.0623 xu 0.11 0.11 0.0825 0.06875 0.06875 0.06531 0.06359 0.06273 0.06273 0.06252 xm 0.055 0.0825 0.06875 0.06188 0.06531 0.06359 0.06273 0.0623 0.06252 0.06241
a %
f(xm) 6.655105 1.622104 5.563105 4.484106 2.593105 1.0804105 3.176106 6.497107 1.265106 3.0768107
---------33.33 20.00 11.11 5.263 2.702 1.370 0.6897 0.3436 0.1721
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Table 1 Cont.
Hence the number of significant digits at least correct is given by the largest value or m for which
a e 0.5 v 10 2 m 0.1721 e 0.5 v 10 2 m 0.3442 e 10 2 m log 0.3442
e 2 m m e 2 log 0.3442
! 2.463
So
m!2
The number of significant digits at least correct in the estimated root of 0.06241 at the end of the 10th iteration is 2.
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Advantages
Always convergent The root bracket gets halved with each iteration - guaranteed.
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Drawbacks
Slow convergence If one of the initial guesses is close to the root, the convergence is slower
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Drawbacks (continued)
If a function f(x) is such that it just touches the x-axis it will be unable to find the lower and upper guesses.
f(x)
f x
! x
x
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Drawbacks (continued)
Function changes sign but root does not exist
f(x)
1 f x
! x
x
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Additional Resources
For all resources on this topic such as digital audiovisual lectures, primers, textbook chapters, multiple-choice tests, worksheets in MATLAB, MATHEMATICA, MathCad and MAPLE, blogs, related physical problems, please visit [Link] [Link]
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