Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-year-1-of-the-computer-science-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2022/discrete-mathematics-continuous-mathematics-and-probability/continuous-mathematics/4/d/solution

Minimize the square of the Euclidean distance, using minimizers under strictly increasing transformations. For ,
For fixed the unique minimum has . Put and . Its derivative is
Let . Since , it is strictly increasing, with limits and at the two ends of . It therefore has exactly one zero. The sign of changes there from negative to positive, proving the unique global minimum. The nearest point is at that zero.[ref]
The Newton root-finding iteration is
Starting at gives , , and . Moreover certifies the rounding. Thus to three significant figures; more accurately .

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