Newton Raphson Works Great, Until It Doesn't - Part 2

Calculus Level 2

Consider the real valued function given by f ( x ) = x 3 f(x) = \sqrt[3]{x} . If we apply the Newton Raphson method with the approximate root x 0 = 0.2 x_0 = 0.2 , which root would we converge to?

0 0 + + \infty The process does not converge - \infty

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2 solutions

Rafael Augusto
Apr 3, 2014

Note that x n x_{n} =0.2(-2)^{n}. Then the process not converge

Daniel Liu
Apr 3, 2014

Note that as x x goes from 0 0 to ± \pm\infty , the derivative of x 3 \sqrt[3]{x} approaches 0 0 monotonically. Therefore, after doing the Newton Raphson method one time from an arbitrary approximate root x 0 x_0 , we end up with the approximate root x 1 x_1 such that sgn ( x 1 ) = sgn ( x 0 ) \text{sgn}(x_1)=-\text{sgn}(x_0) and x 1 > x 0 |x_1| > |x_0| . This repeats to infinity, having x n x_n become larger and larger while switching signs. Therefore, the method will not converge.

This solution is all just my intuition, not really any rigorous math, so apologies for any confusion.

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