Given f(x)=root3 (1+3x)f(x)=31+3x at a=0 and use it to estimate the value of the root3( 1.03)31.03?

1 Answer
Jan 12, 2017

x=1.009902x=1.009902 to 6dp

Explanation:

There are a couple of approaches to get a really good approximation

Method 1 - Binomial Series (Power Series) Expansion:

The first is to use the Binomial series expansion, which is essentially the Taylor Series about a=0a=0 (ie the Maclaurin series), which is I assume what questioner intended.

So using the Binomial Series we have;

f(x) = root(3)(1+3x) f(x)=31+3x
" " = (1+3x)^(1/3) =(1+3x)13
" " = 1 +(1/3)(3x) + (1/3)(-2/3)(3x)^2/(2!) + =1+(13)(3x)+(13)(23)(3x)22!+
" "(1/3)(-2/3)(-5/3)(3x)^3/(3!) + ...
" " = 1 + x -x^2+5/3x^3 + ...

And if we put x=0.01 then we have:

f(0.01) = root(3)(1+0.03)
" " = root(3)(1.03)
" " = 1 + 0.01 -0.01^2+5/3(0.01)^3 + ...
" " = 1 + 0.01 -0.0001+5/3(0.000001) + ...
" " ~~ 1 + 0.01 -0.0001+0.000001667 (ignoring higher terms)
" " ~~ 1.009901667

And so it would be reasonable to conclude that root(3)(1.03)=1.009902 to 6dp.

And in fact using a calculator we find root(3)(1.03)=1.00990163...

Method 2 - Newton-Rhapson

Another approach is to use Newton Rhapson to solve an equation of which root(3)(1.03) is a solution. So we require

\ \ \ \ \ \ \x = root(3)(1.03)
:. x^3 = 1.03
:. x^3 - 1.03 = 0

Let f(x) = x^3 - 1.03 Then our aim is to solve f(x)=0 in the interval 0 le x le 2

First let us look at the graphs:
graph{x^3 - 1.03 [-5, 5, -15, 15]}

We can see there is one solution in the interval 0 le x le 2.

We can find the solution numerically, using Newton-Rhapson method

\ \ \ \ \ \ \f(x) = x^3 - 1.03
:. f'(x) = 3x^2

The Newton-Rhapson method uses the following iterative sequence

{ (x_0,=1), ( x_(n+1), = x_n - f(x_n)/(f'(x_n)) ) :}

Then using excel working to 8dp we can tabulate the iterations as follows:

enter image source here

We could equally use a modern scientific graphing calculator as most new calculators have an " Ans " button that allows the last calculated result to be used as the input of an iterated expression.

And we conclude that the solution is x=1.009902 to 6dp