2.

The Bisection Method

49

Figure 2.1
y
f (b)
y  f (x)
p3

f (p1)
a  a1

pp

p2

b  b1

f ( p2)
f (a)
a1
a2

p1
p2
a3

ALGORITHM

2.1

b1

b2
p3

b3

Bisection
To nd a solution to f (x) = 0 given the continuous function f on the interval [a, b], where
f (a) and f (b) have opposite signs:
INPUT endpoints a, b; tolerance TOL; maximum number of iterations N0 .
OUTPUT approximate solution p or message of failure.
Step 1

Set i = 1;
FA = f (a).

Step 2

While i N0 do Steps 36.

Step 4

Set p = a + (b a)/2; (Compute pi .)

FP = f ( p).
If FP = 0 or (b a)/2 < TOL then
OUTPUT (p); (Procedure completed successfully.)
STOP.

Step 5

Set i = i + 1.

Step 6

If FA FP > 0 then set a = p; (Compute ai , bi .)

FA = FP
else set b = p. (FA is unchanged.)

Step 3

Step 7

OUTPUT (Method failed after N0 iterations, N0 =, N0 );

(The procedure was unsuccessful.)
STOP.

Other stopping procedures can be applied in Step 4 of Algorithm 2.1 or in any of

the iterative techniques in this chapter. For example, we can select a tolerance > 0 and
generate p1 , . . . , pN until one of the following conditions is met:

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