3 ms·
It's really just Newton's method for successive approximations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newtons_method http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newtons_method
by frisco 17y ago
It's really just Newton's method for successive approximations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newtons_method http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newtons_method
- eru 17y agoAnd a very clever zeroth approximation.
- jacquesm 17y agoExactly, that's the key to the whole thing. After all if your first approximation is 'in the ballpark' you get a lot of precision in one go. Newtons method would run 'infinitely long' to reach an arbitrary precision, normally the cutoff is some acceptable error. By getting within the ballpark on the first try you can get within acceptable error with one more approximation step. (acceptable depends on the use of the result of course).