Precalculus: Roots and Cobwebs

Objectives

• Students will find roots to equations using the recursive algorithm Fixed Point Iteration (FPI) and will visualize the algorithm as a cobweb plot.

Vocabulary

• recursive sequence
• convergent sequence
• Fixed Point Iteration
• cobweb plot

About the Lesson

This lesson involves finding roots to equations using a method similar to those used by many calculators.
As a result, students will:

• Find roots using a recursive sequence - Fixed Point Iteration.
• Visualize this root-finding recursive sequence as a cobweb plot.