Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. A root-finding algorithm is a numerical method, or algorithm, for finding a value x such that f(x) = 0, for a given function f. Such an x is called a root of the function f. This article is concerned with finding scalar, real or complex roots, approximated as floating point numbers. Finding integer roots or exact algebraic roots are separate problems, whose algorithms have little in common with those discussed here. Finding a root of f(x) ¿ g(x) = 0 is the same as solving the equation f(x) = g(x). Here, x is called the unknown in the equation. Conversely, any equation can take the canonical form f(x) = 0, so equation solving is the same thing as computing (or finding) a root of a function. Numerical root-finding methods use iteration, producing a sequence of numbers that hopefully converge towards a limit (the so called "fixed point") which is a root. The first values of this series are initial guesses. The method computes subsequent values based on the old ones and the function f.