False position method

This article is about a root-finding algorithm. See all root-finding algorithms

Definition

False position method is a root-finding algorithm that is qualitative similar to bisection search in that it uses nested intervals based on opposite signs at the endpoints to converge to a root, but is computationally based on the secant method. The idea is to use the secant method to make successive point estimates, and provide the nested interval estimate based on the most recent point and the most recent point prior to that where the function value has opposite sign.