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FixedPoint[Cos, 1.0]

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg119351] FixedPoint[Cos, 1.0]
  • From: J Siehler <jsiehler at gmail.com>
  • Date: Tue, 31 May 2011 07:49:00 -0400 (EDT)

My numerical analysis students this past term pointed out to me that
the command

FixedPoint[Cos, 1.0]

which is the first example in the Information for FixedPoint doesn't
ever finish running (or, not in any reasonable amount of time).  We
tried this on serveral versions of Mathematica (6.x, 7.x, and 8.x),
all on OS X, and got the same nonresult.

It can be forced by specifying something like FixedPoint[Cos, 1.0,
SameTest -> (Abs[#1 - #2] < 10^-10 &)] or FixedPoint[Cos, 1.0, 40],
but it seems like that should be unnecessary, and the form given in
the documentation should work.  Can anybody else confirm this
behavior?  Am I missing something totally obvious here?


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