Starting Values

The error analysis in the previous section shows that if the initial guess is chosen accurately enough, that is, if e[0] is chosen sufficiently small, then the right hand side of enPlus1 will be smaller than e[0] and the sequence {e[n]}, n = 1,... ,Infinity, will decrease to zero. Hence, Newton's method will converge.

Convergence is not guaranteed, however, when the initial guess is not chosen accurately enough.

Divergence Examples

Fractals and Newton's Method

Up to Newton's Method