babylon.py

#-----------------------------------------
# BABYLON.PY - The Babylonian algorithm
#              for finding square roots
#
#--------------------------------------
from visual.graph import *

a = 2     # number we want to find the root of
x = 1.0   # initial guess

oldx=-1
while x != oldx:
    print "estimate:",x,"error:",a-x*x
    oldx = x
    x = (x + a/x)/2