A small difference between successive secant method iterates alone does not certify a small absolute error. Instead use a residual root error bound. On ,and , so there is a unique root . For an iterate , the mean value theorem givesTherefore stop when and . This guarantees the desired absolute error in exact arithmetic; the evaluated residual of a root equation should include an allowance for its much smaller roundoff error. A safeguarded implementation can retain the bracket and use bisection if a proposed secant method step leaves it.