Secant Root Finding Method

steps

x

0

x

1

c

0

c

1

c

2

c

3

Steps of the secant root finding method for a cubic polynomial. The secant method for numerical root finding of the functions

f

consists of the steps

x

k+1

=

x

k

-f(

x

k

)(

x

k

-

x

k-1

)/(f(

x

k

)-f(

x

k-1

))

, beginning with the two starting values

x

0

and

x

1

. The method can converge to a root or diverge.