MBE2036 Engineering Computing part 6, Dr.

Yajing Shen 31

Example 1
Problem statement: Use the Secant method to
estimate the root of f(x)=e-x - x, employing two
initial guesses of x-1=0 and x0=1. The true value
of the root is 0.56714329.
Solution:
First iteration:
x-1 = 0 f(x-1) = e0 -0 = 1.0

x0 = 1 f(x0) = e-1 -1 = 0.367879 1 = -0.63212

f(x0 )(x1 x0 ) - 0.63212(0 - 1)

Based on Eq 7.3, x1 = x0 = 1- = 0.61270
f(x1 ) f(x0 ) 1 - (-0.63212)

Department of Mechanical and

Biomedical Engineering City University of Hong Kong
MBE2036 Engineering Computing part 6, Dr. Yajing Shen 34

Modified Secant Method

Rather than using two arbitrary values to estimate the
derivate, an alternative approach involves a fractional
perturbation of the independent variable to estimate
f(x),
f(xi + xi ) f(xi )
f (xi )
'
Eq 7.4
xi
Substitute Eq 7.4 into Eq 6.2:
xi f(xi )
xi +1 = xi Eq 7.5
f(xi + xi ) f(xi )

Eq 7.5 is the formula for the Modified Secant Method

Department of Mechanical and

Biomedical Engineering City University of Hong Kong