ENGR 103 — Week 06: Bisection Search and Newton-Raphson

📖 Weekly Overview

This week we level up our numerical toolkit. Bisection search is O(log n) — far faster than exhaustive enumeration. Newton-Raphson converges quadratically, doubling correct digits each step. These are the workhorses of computational engineering.

🎯 Learning Objectives

By the end of this week, you will be able to:

Implement bisection search from scratch
Explain logarithmic vs. quadratic convergence
Apply Newton-Raphson for fast root-finding
Compare all three numerical methods

📚 Required Reading

Guttag, "Introduction to Computation and Programming Using Python" (3rd Ed)
Week 06 Reading: Ch 3.4–3.5
Complete before the first lecture of the week.

📅 This Week's Schedule

Monday: Monday: Bisection search
Friday: Friday: Newton-Raphson method.

✅ Assignments Due This Week

Week 06 Quiz — Due Sunday 11:59 PM on Canvas (15 questions, 15 pts)
Week 06 Assignment — Due Sunday 11:59 PM on Canvas (3 coding problems)

🔗 Resources

Lecture slides available on Canvas before each class
Textbook: Guttag Ch 1 available free at MIT OpenCourseWare
Python documentation: docs.python.org
Office hours: Check Canvas calendar for times and Zoom/room info
Course Piazza: Post questions (anonymously if preferred)