Pirates & Revolutionaries: The Babylonian Method for Approximating the Square Root of 2

Pirates & Revolutionaries

"if you think childlike, you'll stay young. If you keep your energy going, and do everything with a little flair, you're gunna stay young. But most people do things without energy, and they atrophy their mind as well as their body. you have to think young, you have to laugh a lot, and you have to have good feelings for everyone in the world, because if you don't, it's going to come inside, your own poison, and it's over" Jerry Lewis "I don’t believe in the irreversibility of situations" Deleuze

6 Nov 2008

The Babylonian Method for Approximating the Square Root of 2

by Corry Shores
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For $\sqrt{2}$ :

1) Make a guess; even a bad one: 4

2) ½ (4 + 2/4) = 2.25

3) ½(2.25 + 2/2.25) = 1.56

4) Repeat, thereby obtaining: 1.42 , 1.41

1.41² ≈ 2

(from Edwards & Penney: Calculus. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002)

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