CAIE P3 2005 November — Question 4

Exam BoardCAIE
ModuleP3 (Pure Mathematics 3)
Year2005
SessionNovember
TopicFixed Point Iteration

4 The equation \(x ^ { 3 } - x - 3 = 0\) has one real root, \(\alpha\).
  1. Show that \(\alpha\) lies between 1 and 2 . Two iterative formulae derived from this equation are as follows: $$\begin{aligned} & x _ { n + 1 } = x _ { n } ^ { 3 } - 3
    & x _ { n + 1 } = \left( x _ { n } + 3 \right) ^ { \frac { 1 } { 3 } } \end{aligned}$$ Each formula is used with initial value \(x _ { 1 } = 1.5\).
  2. Show that one of these formulae produces a sequence which fails to converge, and use the other formula to calculate \(\alpha\) correct to 2 decimal places. Give the result of each iteration to 4 decimal places.