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I wasn't at school when we were learning this, and I've forgot how to calculate a square root on paper using a formula?

Can anyone please help me? What is the formula?

I need this to write an algorithm for my college assignment home work. Thanks!

Henry T. Horton
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3 Answers3

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Let $ a \geq 0 $. If you want to find $ \sqrt{a} $, use the following iteration: \begin{align} x_{0} &:= a. \\ x_{n+1} &:= \frac{1}{2} \left( x_{n} + \frac{a}{x_{n}} \right). \end{align} Then $ \displaystyle \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} x_{n} = \sqrt{a} $. This is an example of the Newton-Raphson method, applied to the function $ f(x) = x^{2} - a $. This particular iteration exhibits quadratic convergence, which means that the number of correct digits about doubles in size with each successive step. Hence, on an ordinary scientific calculator, one can obtain a good approximation after just a few steps.

Haskell Curry
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    I remember asking my teacher in about third grade, since we were doing the division step by hand as well, and a certain amount of careful work was involved, to how many digits should we calculate $a / x_n?$ I never got an answer. – Will Jagy Oct 19 '12 at 23:07
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    I do not think it accepted your edit. Try to put in $\frac{a}{x_n}$ again and be careful to hit whatever button means "save edit." Never mind, I did it. – Will Jagy Oct 19 '12 at 23:09
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    That is known as the Babylonian method. – MJD Oct 19 '12 at 23:15
  • this I used! helped alot, thanks! –  Oct 19 '12 at 23:18
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    @WillJagy: Thanks! My keyboard is having some problems, so typing is a little difficult. – Haskell Curry Oct 19 '12 at 23:19
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    Haskell, I have always had good luck using my home version of Latex, composing there until it is what I actually want, then copying and pasting to window here. Not usually necessary for short posts unless your computer has serious problems. Very helpful with long posts if the computer insists on rendering the Latex/MathJax as you go along, thus slowing things down. – Will Jagy Oct 19 '12 at 23:23
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    Thanks for the advice! It's even harder to post comments sometimes, especially when I have to use braces: '{' and '}'. Anyway, I'm glad that you made the edit. – Haskell Curry Oct 20 '12 at 01:26
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    @MJD: Yes, I just realized that the Babylonians discovered this method centuries before Newton discovered his iterative method. – Haskell Curry Oct 20 '12 at 01:28
  • Wait, if the number of digits doubles each step, that means the number of digits it gives grows exponentially. Is how fast the digits grow a different order of growth then how fast in converges. – Christopher King Jun 26 '13 at 17:03
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Use $$(1+x)^{1/2}=\sum_{n=0} \binom{1/2}{n}x^n$$ for $|x|<1$, where $\binom{a}{n}=\frac{a(a-1)\dots (a-n+1)}{n!}$.

i. m. soloveichik
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Observe that $$\sin \left( {\frac{\pi }{4}} \right) = \cos \left( {\frac{\pi }{4}} \right) = \frac{{\sqrt 2 }}{2}$$ so you can use Taylor series for either $\sin (\pi /4)$ or $\cos (\pi /4)$ to approximate ${\sqrt 2 }$ for example.

Or you could just use linear approximation from calculus.

I am not familiar with algorithms, but it seems like linear approximation should be easier.

glebovg
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