[Math] Why does fixed point iteration have to be in radians

fixed-point-theoremsnumerical methods

This might seem like a dumb question but I can't find an explanation anywahere.

I was working on this problem:

Apply the fixed-point iteration method to this function
$$f(x)=2(\sin x+\cos x)−x$$
with $x_1=2$

I rearranged the equation into an "fixed point equation":

$$f(x)=0\Rightarrow f(x)=2(\sin{x}+\cos{x})−x=0$$
$$x=2(\sin{⁡x}+\cos{⁡x})$$
$$\frac{x}{2}=\sin⁡{x}+\cos⁡{x}$$
$$x=\sin{x}+\cos{x}+\frac{x}{2}$$
$$g(x)=x⇒g(x)=\sin x+\cos x+\frac{x}{2}$$

I iterated a sufficient amount of times to find $ x \approx 1.71$

I had done all of the above in radians for simplicity however when I tried it with my calculator working in degrees and $$r=2, x=2.034$$

I iterated a sufficient amount of times to find $ x \approx 2.71$
which differs from the radians answer by 1. This seems suspicious as the real convergence does go to $x \approx 1.71$, why can (or can't if I'm wrong) fixed point only be in radians? and why was my degrees result exactly 1 greater?

Best Answer

What definition of trig functions (also called "circular functions") are you using?

The definitions in terms of right angles cannot be used in general as that requires the angle to be between 0 and 90 degrees but, in order to use them as functions we want them defined for all real numbers.

Of the "circle" definition is used: Construct a unit circle (center at (0, 0), radius 1) in an xy-coordinate system. Given non-negative number, t, measure, counter clockwise, around the circumference a distance t (for negative t, measure clockwise). The endpoint has coordinates $(\cos(t), \sin(t))$. That is, whatever the end point is, the x coordinate is, by definition, $\cos(t)$, the y coordinate is $\sin(t)$.

Notice that "$t$" is NOT in degrees because it is not an angle at all, it is a distance around the circumference. We can think of that as an angle by identifying the angle with the distance subtended on a unit circle which is simply the definition of "radian".

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