Numerical recipes

356 Chapter 9. Root Finding and Nonlinear Sets of Equations
1 3 4
f(x)
Figure 9.2.3. Example where both the secant and false position methods will take many iterations to
arrive at the true root. This function would be difficult for many other root-finding methods.
False position, since it sometimes keeps an older rather than newer function
evaluation, has a lower order of convergence. Since the newer function value will
sometimes be kept, the method is often superlinear, but estimation of its exact order
is not so easy.
Here are sample implementations of these two related methods. While these
methods are standard textbook fare, Ridders’ method, described below, or Brent’s
method, in the next section, are almost always better choices. Figure 9.2.3 shows the
behavior of secant and false-position methods in a difficult situation.
#include
#define MAXIT 30 Set to the maximum allowed number of iterations.
float rtflsp(float (*func)(float), float x1, float x2, float xacc)
Using the false position method, find the root of a function func known to lie between x1 and
x2. The root, returned as rtflsp, is refined until its accuracy is ±xacc.
{
void nrerror(char error_text[]);
int j;
float fl,fh,xl,xh,swap,dx,del,f,rtf;
fl=(*func)(x1);
fh=(*func)(x2); Be sure the interval brackets a root.
if (fl*fh > 0.0) nrerror("Root must be bracketed in rtflsp");
if (fl < 0.0) { Identify the limits so that xl corresponds to the low
xl=x1;
side.
xh=x2;
} else {
xl=x2;
xh=x1;
swap=fl;
2
x
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