Numerical Root Finding
NSolve gives you a general way to find numerical approximations to the solutions of polynomial equations. Finding numerical solutions to more general equations, however, can be much more difficult, as discussed in "Equations in One Variable". FindRoot gives you a way to search for a numerical root of a function or a numerical solution to an arbitrary equation, or set of equations.
| FindRoot[f,{x,x0}] | search for a numerical root of f, starting with  |
| FindRoot[lhs==rhs,{x,x0}] | search for a numerical solution to the equation  , starting with  |
| FindRoot[f1,f2,...,{{x,x0},{y,y0},...}] |
| | search for a simultaneous numerical root of all the  |
| FindRoot[{eqn1,eqn2,...},{{x,x0},{y,y0},...}] |
| | search for a numerical solution to the simultaneous equations  |
Numerical root finding.
The curves for
and
intersect at one point.
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This finds a numerical approximation to the value of
at which the intersection occurs. The
tells
FindRoot what value of
to try first.
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In trying to find a solution to your equation, FindRoot starts at the point you specify, and then progressively tries to get closer and closer to a solution. Even if your equations have several solutions, FindRoot always returns the first solution it finds. Which solution this is will depend on what starting point you chose. If you start sufficiently close to a particular solution, FindRoot will usually return that solution.
The function
has an infinite number of roots of the form
. If you start sufficiently close to a particular root,
FindRoot will give you that root.
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If you start with
, you get a numerical approximation to the root
.
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If you want
FindRoot to search for complex solutions, then you have to give a complex starting value.
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This finds a zero of the Riemann zeta function.
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This finds a solution to a set of simultaneous equations.
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The variables used by FindRoot can have values that are lists. This allows you to find roots of functions that take vectors as arguments.
This is a way to solve a linear equation for the variable
.
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This finds a normalized eigenvector
and eigenvalue
.
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