Math 111: MATLAB Assignment 2: Newton's Method

Due Date: December 1, 2017

The sample program below illustrates how Newton's Method is used to find the root of an equation. Consult the MATLAB TA's if you have any questions.

Contents

Sample Program

Use Newton's method to find the one real root of

Note: anything following a '%' is a comment and is ignored by Matlab

x = -2;
Tol = 0.0000001;
count = 0;
dx=1;   %this is a fake value so that the while loop will execute
f=-13;    % because f(-2)=-13
fprintf('step      x           dx           f(x)\n')
fprintf('----  -----------  ---------    ----------\n')
fprintf('%3i %12.8f %12.8f %12.8f\n',count,x,dx,f)
xVec=x;fVec=f;
while (dx > Tol || abs(f)>Tol)  %note that dx and f need to be defined for this statement to proceed
    count = count + 1;
    fprime = 3*x^2 + 3;
    xnew = x - (f/fprime);   % compute the new value of x
    dx=abs(x-xnew);          % compute how much x has changed since last step
    x = xnew;
    f = x^3 + 3*x + 1;       % compute the new value of f(x)
    fprintf('%3i %12.8f %12.8f %12.8f\n',count,x,dx,f)
end

% This produces the following output:
step      x           dx           f(x)
----  -----------  ---------    ----------
  0  -2.00000000   1.00000000 -13.00000000
  1  -1.13333333   0.86666667  -3.85570370
  2  -0.57073065   0.56260268  -0.89809804
  3  -0.34491904   0.22581161  -0.07579185
  4  -0.32234116   0.02257788  -0.00051597
  5  -0.32218536   0.00015580  -0.00000002
  6  -0.32218535   0.00000001   0.00000000

New Matab ideas

Description of parameters used in this program

x We start with an initial guess x = 0, x then gets updated by the newton iterations

N is the Maximum number of Iterations you will allow the program to do

Tol is the Tolerance, the max difference permitted between exact and approximate root

count is the number of iterations performed

Saving and ruunning the program

Once you have saved this program, for example as newton.m, typing the filename, newton, at the prompt in the Command window will run the program.

Your Assignment

Cut and paste the above code into the Matlab editor. Modify it appropriately to do the following to hand in:

1. Find the roots of the equation

Use initial guesses of x=1. and x=-1. What happens if you give an initial guess of x=0? Explain.

2. Find the root of the equation

starting from the initial condition x=0.

How many iterations are required to obtain accuracy of 6 decimal places?

Hand in printouts of both the m-files and the outputs of the two programs in addition to your answers to the above questions.