Math 305, Fall 2022

Exercise Problems for Week 1

October 5, 2022

1. Show that g(x) = 2−x has a unique fixed-point in

1 
3
,1 .

2. Show that the sequence of iterates (xk ) defined by

xk
xk+1 =
2(1 + x2k )

converges for an arbitrary choice of x0 ∈ R. Carry out the first 10 iterations

in Matlab

3. Solve question 1.2 from the textbook (by Endre Suli and David Mayers).

4. The lateral surface area S of a cone excluding its base is given by

√
S = πr r2 + h2 ,

where r is the radius of the base and h is the height. Determine the radius
of a cone which has a lateral surface area 1200 m2 and a height of 20 m by
using the simple iteration (i.e., fixed-point iteration) with
√
φ(r) = S/(π r2 + h2 ) .

Start with r = 17, and perform calculations in Matlab until two consecutive
iterates do not differ by more than 10−8 .