Subj : Re: sqrt algo
To   : comp.programming
From : Arthur J. O'Dwyer
Date : Thu Jul 14 2005 05:54 pm


On Thu, 14 Jul 2005, Martijn wrote:
[Someone else wrote:]
>> Here is an iterative one (from the ancient Egypt, I have been told):
>>
>> current_estimate = 0.5*(previous_estimate + number/previous_estimate)
>>
>> You'll have to terminate it when you are "close enough".  (It
>> converges quite quickly, the number itself may serve as the first
>> estimate.)
>
> In which case you might as well take 1.

   I suspect you've misunderstood the relative precedence of + and /
in the above formula. :)

-Arthur,
only for very small values of n

.