Two Geometric Views of Newton's Method
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The top plot shows the usual geometric picture of Newton's method for finding an approximate solution to . Starting with an initial guess, , move down the tangent until you hit the axis, then calculate a new tangent line and repeat times. The bottom plot is a cobweb plot for . This illustrates that Newton's method composes with itself times starting with .
Contributed by: Bruce Atwood (March 2011)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
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