Bisection Method

Numerical Analysis
Solution of Nonlinear Equations

Topic: Bisection method
Bisection Method
• The method is known as the Bolzano method
and can be called interval halving technique.
• The method is simple and straight-forward.
• Given a bracketed root, the method repeatedly
halves the interval while continuing to bracket
the root and it will converge on the solution.
Step 1
Choose xl and xu f(x)
as two guesses
for the root such
that f(xl) f(xu) < 0,
or in other words,
f(x) changes sign
between xl and xu.
x
x
xu
Step 2
Estimate the root, xm
f(x)
of the equation f (x) =
0 as the mid-point
between xl and xu as
x  xu
xm =
2 x
x
xu
Step 3
Now check the following
f(x)
If f(xl) f(xm) < 0, then the root

lies between xl and xm;
then xl = xl ; xu = xm.
If f(xl ) f(xm) > 0, then the root

lies between xm and xu;
then xl = xm; xu = xu.
x xm
x
xu
If f(xl) f(xm) = 0; then the root
is xm. Stop the algorithm
if this is true.
Step 4
x  xu
New estimate xm =
2
Absolute Relative Approximate Error
x new  x old
m
a  m
new
 100
x m
xmold  previous estimate of root
xmnew  current estimate of root

Step 5
Check if absolute
relative approximate
error is less
than pre-specified Yes Stop
tolerance or if
maximum number
of iterations is
reached. Using the new
No
upper and lower
guesses from Step
3, go to Step 2.
Example
• You are working for ‘DOWN THE TOILET COMPANY’ that
makes floats for ABC commodes. The ball has a specific
gravity of 0.6 and has a radius of 5.5 cm. You are asked to
find the distance to which the ball will get submerged when
floating in water.
Solution
The equation that gives the depth ‘x’ to which the ball is
submerged under water is given by
f  x   x 3-0.165 x 2+3.993x10 - 4
Use the Bisection method of finding
roots of equations to find the depth
‘x’ to which the ball is submerged
under water. Conduct three
iterations to estimate the root of
the above equation.
Graph of function f(x)
 
f x  x -0.165 x +3.993x10
3 2 -4
Checking if the bracket is valid
Choose the bracket
x  0.00
xu  0.11
f  0.0   3.993x10  4
f  0.11  2.662x10  4
Iteration #1
x  0, xu  0.11
0  0.11
xm   0.055
2
f  0   3.993x10 4
f  0.11  2.662x10  4
f  0.055  6.655x10 5
x  0.055
xu  0.11
Iteration #2
x  0.055, xu  0.11
0.055  0.11
xm   0.0825
2
a  33.33%
f  0.055  6.655x10 5
f  0.11  2.662 x10  4
f  0.0825  1.62216 x10  4
x  0.055, xu  0.0825
Iteration #3
x  0.055, xu  0.0825
0.055  0.0825
xm   0.06875
2
a  20%
f  0.055  6.655x10 5
f  0.0825  1.62216 x10  4
f  0.06875  5.5632 x10 5
Convergence
Table 1: Root of f(x)=0 as function of number of iterations for bisection method.
Iteration x xu xm a % f(xm)
1 0.00000 0.11 0.055 ---------- 6.655x10-5

2 0.055 0.11 0.0825 33.33 -1.6222x10-4
3 0.055 0.0825 0.06875 20.00 -5.5632x10-5
4 0.055 0.06875 0.06188 11.11 4.4843x10-6
5 0.06188 0.06875 0.06531 5.263 -2.5939x10-5
6 0.06188 0.06531 0.06359 2.702 -1.0804x10-5
7 0.06188 0.06359 0.06273 1.369 -3.1768x10-6
8 0.06188 0.06273 0.0623 0.6896 6.4973x10-7
9 0.0623 0.06273 0.06252 0.3436 -1.2646x10-6
10 0.0623 0.06252 0.06241 0.1721 -3.0767x10-7
Bisection Method
A basic loop that is used to find root between two points for a
function f(x) is shown here.
DO while 0.5*|x1 - x2| >= tolerance_value

Set xmid =(x1 + x2)/2
IF f(xmid) of opposite sign of f(x1);
Set x2 = xmid;
ELSE
Set x1 = xxmid;
ENDIF
END loop
Bisection Method
DemoBisect: the example program does a simple bisection for a

cubic polynomial equation.
Bisection Method
• Example Problem:
y(x) = a5 x5 + a4 x4 + a3 x3 + a2 x2 + a1 x + a0
• Let us consider constants to be following:
a0 = -2, a1 = -3, a2 = 4, a3 = 1, a4 = 0, a5 = 1
Then the function:

y(x) = x5 + x3 + 4x2 - 3x - 2
First we plot this function in a range from -3 to 3 and

see visually where roots are located.
Bisectional Method
There are 3 roots
(a) -2 < x < -1
(b) -1 < x < 0
(c) 0.5 < x <1.5
The graph for the

function is shown here.
Computer Program for Bisection method
% A program in matlab
% bisection method to find the roots of x^5+x^3+4*x^2-3*x-2=0
xleft = -2.0 ; xright = -1.0 ; n = 100
% Input: xleft,xright = left and right brackets of the root
% n = (optional) number of iterations; default: n =15
% Output: x = estimate of the root
if nargin<3, n=15; end % Default number of iterations
a = xleft; b =xright; % Copy orig bracket to local variables
fa = a^5 + a^3 +4*a^2 - 3*a - 2; % Initial values
fb = b^5 + b^3 +4*b^2 - 3*b - 2; % Initial values
fprintf(' k a xmid b f(xmid)\n');
for k=1:n
xm = a + 0.5*(b-a); % Minimize roundoff in the midpoint
fm = xm^5 + xm^3 +4*xm^2 - 3*xm - 2; % f(x) at midpoint
fprintf('%3d %12.8f %12.8f %12.8f %12.3e\n',k,a,xm,b,fm);
if sign(fm) == sign(fa)
a = xm; fa = fm;
else
b = xm; fb = fm;
end
end
Bisection Method
k a xmid b f(xmid)
1 -2.00000000 -1.50000000 -1.00000000 5.313e-001
2 -2.00000000 -1.75000000 -1.50000000 -6.272e+000
3 -1.75000000 -1.62500000 -1.50000000 -2.184e+000
4 -1.62500000 -1.56250000 -1.50000000 -6.748e-001
5 -1.56250000 -1.53125000 -1.50000000 -3.612e-002
6 -1.53125000 -1.51562500 -1.50000000 2.562e-001
7 -1.53125000 -1.52343750 -1.51562500 1.122e-001
8 -1.53125000 -1.52734375 -1.52343750 3.860e-002
9 -1.53125000 -1.52929688 -1.52734375 1.379e-003
10 -1.53125000 -1.53027344 -1.52929688 -1.734e-002
11 -1.53027344 -1.52978516 -1.52929688 -7.971e-003
12 -1.52978516 -1.52954102 -1.52929688 -3.294e-003
13 -1.52954102 -1.52941895 -1.52929688 -9.572e-004
14 -1.52941895 -1.52935791 -1.52929688 2.108e-004
15 -1.52941895 -1.52938843 -1.52935791 -3.732e-004
16 -1.52938843 -1.52937317 -1.52935791 -8.117e-005
17 -1.52937317 -1.52936554 -1.52935791 6.482e-005
18 -1.52937317 -1.52936935 -1.52936554 -8.174e-006
19 -1.52936935 -1.52936745 -1.52936554 2.832e-005
20 -1.52936935 -1.52936840 -1.52936745 1.008e-005
For range of x = [-2, -1]; we see x = -1.5293684 as root here.

Advantages & Disadvantages
Advatages:
• Always convergent
• The root bracket gets halved with each iteration -
guaranteed.
Disadvatanges:
• Slow convergence
• If one of the initial guesses is close to the root, the
convergence is slower
Drawbacks (continued)
• If a function f(x) is such that it just touches the x-axis it will be
unable to find the lower and upper guesses.
f  x  x2
Drawbacks (continued)
 Function changes sign but root does not exist
1
f  x 
x

Bisection Method

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Numerical Analysis

Solution of Nonlinear Equations

If f(xl) f(xm) < 0, then the root

If f(xl ) f(xm) > 0, then the root

Absolute Relative Approximate Error

xmold  previous estimate of root

xmnew  current estimate of root

1 0.00000 0.11 0.055 ---------- 6.655x10-5

DO while 0.5*|x1 - x2| >= tolerance_value

DemoBisect: the example program does a simple bisection for a

Then the function:

First we plot this function in a range from -3 to 3 and

The graph for the

For range of x = [-2, -1]; we see x = -1.5293684 as root here.

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