The Help page of FindRoot says:
"by default, FindRoot uses Newton's method (Newton-Raphson) to solve a nonlinear system"
(or a nonlinear equation I suppose). Nevertheless, there is something hidden for me in the FindRoot command. Consider the function
f[x]:=Exp[1 - x] - 1
whose Newton iteration function is
Nf[x_]:=E^(-1 + x) (-1 + E^(1 - x)) + x
Iterating with this function using NestList you obtain the sequence of values produced by Newton's method. The Newton method for large values of the initial guess presents slow convergence for this problem.Taking x0=10 we get:
NestList[Nf, 10., 8]
(* {10., -8092.08, -8091.08, -8090.08, -8089.08, -8088.08, -8087.08, -8086.08, -8085.08} *)
where we can see the slow convergence. A plot of the function Nf helps to understand the behaviour of the method. But taking
Module[{s = 0, e = 0}, {FindRoot[f[x], {x, 10.}, StepMonitor :> s++,
EvaluationMonitor :> e++], "Steps" -> s, "Evaluations" -> e}]
produces
{{x -> 1.}, "Steps" -> 7, "Evaluations" -> 11}
needing only 7 steps to get the solution x=1. Why FindRoot produces this result?. Obviously, FindRoot is not using the standard Newton's method, isn't it? Can anyone help me? Thanks.
