Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-year-1-of-the-computer-science-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2019/discrete-mathematics-continuous-mathematics-and-probability/5/b/ii/solution
Past exam of the year 1 of the computer science course of the University of Oxford 2019 Discrete mathematics, continuous mathematics, and probability 5 b ii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
It remains to justify that the iteration stays where the error estimate applies. Because is a concave function, its graph lies below each tangent line. At any , the tangent has nonpositive value at , negative slope, and nonnegative value at . Its zero therefore satisfiesBy mathematical induction, the Newton root-finding iteration stays in and decreases to some limit . Continuity in implies , so uniqueness gives .
Now the supplied error bound applies at every step:This proves at least quadratic convergence, with an invariant interval and a nonvanishing derivative explicitly established.
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