Trial and Improvement

Trial and improvement is easy. It can be used to solve equations as shown in the example below:

$$^{x3}$$+2x=60

x � � $$^{x3}$$+2x � Comment

3 �  �  �33  �  �  �  too small

4 �  �  �72  �  �  �  too big

3.5 �  � 49.875    too small

3.7 �  � 8.053  �   too small

3.8 �  � 62.472  � too big

Give the answer to what the question asks, in this case 1 decimal place. In this equation, the answer is 3.7 becasue if 'x' is entered in as 3.7, it gives the closest value to 60.