# Coordinates at Intersections in TikZ: Newton’s Method Case

Hey guys!

Recently, a question was asked in stack exchange about a plot that demonstrate Newton's method in LaTeX. As an example, I find it interesting to highlight path intersections in TikZ, mainly:

• Intersections of perpendicular lines.
• Intersections of named paths.

Moreover, we will learn how to:

• Plot functions in TikZ.
• Create axis and change its units.

## 1. Intersection of perpendicular lines

Assume we have the coordinates of two points A and B, located at (0,0) and (3,3) respectively. We distinguish two cases:

1) Horizontal line passing through point A and a vertical line passing through point B":

The coordinates of the point of intersection in TikZ are defined by:

• $\verb|(A -| | \verb| B)|$: where A and B are the names of the points created using $\verb|\coordinate|$ command or a $\verb|node|$ command (e.g \verb|\coordinate (A) at (0,0);|)
• or $\verb|(0,0 -| | \verb| 3,3)|$: if we would like to use coordinates directly (coordinates are without parenthesis).

2) Vertical line passing through point A and a horizontal line passing through point B":

The coordinates of the point of intersection in TikZ are defined by:

• $\verb|(A | | \verb|- B)|$ or $\verb|(0,0 | | \verb|- 3,3)|$

Example:

\documentclass[border=0.2cm]{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}

\draw[fill=brown] (0,0) node[left]{$A$}--
(3,2) node[above]{$B$} --
(3,2 |- 0,0) node[right]{$C$} -- cycle;

\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}



The next section presents the interesting part of this tutorial, how one get the coordinates of intersecting paths?

## 2. Intersection of paths in TikZ

Intersections of two arbitrary paths in TikZ can be calculated using intersections library. This is achieved in two steps:

1

Step 1 - Save paths

The first thing that we do is to name paths when we create them using the key name path={name} or name path global={name}. Here is an example:

\documentclass[border=0.2cm]{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{intersections}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}

% Path 1
\draw[name path={orange line},orange] (0,0) -- (4,2);

% Path 2
\draw[name path={violet line},violet] (0,1) -- (4,0);

\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}



In this example, we created two paths (straight lines) and we named them according to their colors orange line and violet line.

Using name path global allows us to save paths beyond any scopes (not a local path).

2

Step 2 - Calculate intersections

After naming paths, we use the key name intersections={options} to get intersections. One of these options is to provide the two named paths as follows: name intersections={of={name1 and name2}}. By default, coordinates of intersections are named intersection-1, intersection-2, etc. Here is an illustrative example:

\documentclass[border=0.2cm]{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{intersections}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}

% Path 1
\draw[name path={orange line},orange] (0,0) -- (4,2);

% Path 2
\draw[name path={violet line},violet] (0,1) -- (4,0);

% Intersections
\fill[name intersections={of=orange line and violet line}]
(intersection-1) circle(2pt);

\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}



In this example, we have one intersection between two lines. We used the \fill command to draw a small circle (filled with black) at (intersection-1) which is by default the intersection name.

In the sequel, we will present more options through examples and the reader is invited to check PGF/TikZ documentation for lore details.

### Intersection of a line and a circle

The following LaTeX code draws a circle at the point with coordinates (1,0) and with radius equal to 1.5cm. The second path corresponds to a line drawn from (-1,0) to (4,1).

\documentclass[border=0.2cm]{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{intersections}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}

% Help lines
\draw[lightgray] (-2,-2) grid (5,2);

% Draw path 1: circle
\draw[name path={circle},orange] (1,0) circle(1.5);

% Draw path2: line
\draw[name path={line},violet] (-1,0) -- (4,1);

% Draw small circles at intersections
\fill[name intersections={of=circle and line},red]
(intersection-1) circle(2pt)
(intersection-2) circle(2pt);

\node[above right] at (intersection-1) {A};
\node[above left] at (intersection-2) {B};

\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}


In this case, the line intersects the circle in two points, named A and B. Coordinates of the first (second) intersection are saved in (intersection-1) ((intersection-2)), respectively.

Labels of these intersections are added using $\verb|\node|$ command.

### Intersection of two circles ("name" option)

By default, intersections are named intersection-1, intersection-2, etc. In this part, we present the key option that allows us to change this prefix it to something different.

Let us say we would like to use the prefix point instead of intersection. This can be achieved by providing the key name=point to the options of name intersections.

The following LaTeX code highlights the intersections of two circles:

\documentclass[border=0.2cm]{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{intersections}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}

% Help Lines
\draw[lightgray] (-2,-2) grid (5,2);

% Circle 1
\draw[name path={circle1}] (1,0)  circle(1.5);

% Circle 2
\draw[name path={circle2},dashed,gray] (2.5,0) circle(1.5);

% Intersections
\fill[name intersections={of=circle1 and circle2, name=point},red]
(point-1) circle(2pt)
(point-2) circle(2pt);

% Labels
\node[above] at (point-1) {A};
\node[below] at (point-2) {B};
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}


### Intersection of a circle and a rectangle ( "by" option)

In the previous section, we have changed the prefix of intersections name from intersection to point as an example. Now, we will change completely the name of intersections (not just the prefix) using the option by={name1,name2,etc}. Let us consider the example of intersections between a rectangle and a circle in TikZ.

\documentclass[border=0.2cm]{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{intersections}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}

% Help lines
\draw[lightgray] (-2,-2) grid (5,2);

% Path 1: rectangle
\draw[name path={rectangle}] (-1,-1)  rectangle(4,1);

% Path 2: circle
\draw[name path={circle}] (1.5,0) circle(1.5);

% Intersecrtions
\fill[name intersections={of=rectangle and circle, by={a,b,c,d}},red]
(a) circle(2pt)
(b) circle(2pt)
(c) circle(2pt)
(d) circle(2pt);

% Labels
\node[above right] at (a) {A};
\node[above left] at (b) {B};
\node[below left] at (c) {C};
\node[below right] at (d) {D};

\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}


The rectangle intersects the circle in four places. Using the by={a,b,c,d} option, we saved coordinates of these intersections in (a), (b), (c) and (d).

Despite the fact that we saved these intersections in a predefined names (a, b, c and d), the default names can also be used (intersection-1, intersection-2, intersection-3 and intersection-4).

### Number of intersections ("total" option)

The number of intersections can be obtained using the option total which requires a variable to save the values in it. Let us consider the previous example (intersection of a rectangle and circle):

\documentclass[border=0.2cm]{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{intersections}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}

% Help lines
\draw[lightgray] (-2,-2) grid (5,2);

% Path 1: rectangle
\draw[name path={rectangle}] (-1,-1)  rectangle(4,1);

% Path 2: circle
\draw[name path={circle}] (1.5,0) circle(1.5);

% Intersections
\fill[name intersections={of=rectangle and circle, name={point},total=\n},red]
\foreach \i in {1,...,\n}
{
(point-\i) circle(2pt)
};

\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}


We stored the number of intersections in $\verb|\n|$ and we used a for loop to draw circles at each intersection.

That's all what we need to know to start drawing the Newton's method in TikZ. For more details, I invite you again to check the PGF/TikZ documentation.

## 3. Newton's Method in TikZ

Newton's Method, known also as Newton-Raphson method, is a numerical method for solving an equation $f(x)=0$. The concept of Newton's Method for finding the roots of equations can be explored by the next graph.

Mainly we need to:

• Create axes with different vector units (due to the quadratic growth of the considered function).
• Plot the function:

$F(x)=\frac{1}{2}(x^2-1)$

• draw a dashed line starting at $x_0=3$ and ends at the function plot.
• draw a tangent line that starts at $F(x_0)$ and ends at the intersection of the tangent line and the x-axis.

### Create axes with different units

Let us consider the (0,0) of the illustration the same as the (0,0) of the axes. Hence, we ill draw two perpendicular lines using the \draw command:

• x-axis: starts from (-1,0) and ends at (4,0) with an arrowhead and label (above the end point).
• y-axis: starts from (0,-1) and ends at (0,5.5) with an arrowhead and a label (right of the end point).
• Ticks are added using a foreach loop which draws + sign at the corresponding coordinates.
\documentclass[border=0.5cm]{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[thick,x=2cm]

% Grid
\draw[black!10,dashed,xstep=2cm] (-1,-1) grid(5,6);

% x-axis
\draw[-latex,name path=xaxis] (-1,0) -- (4,0) node[above]{\large $x$};

% y-axis
\draw[-latex] (0,-1) -- (0,5.5) node[right]{\large $y$};

% Ticks
\foreach \i in {1,2,3} {\node at (\i,0) {$+$};}
\foreach \i in {1,2,3,4} {\node at (0,\i) {$+$};}

\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}


• x-axis unit is equal to 2cm. This is provided as an option to the tikzpicture environment ($\verb|x=2cm|$).
• The x unit of the grid is changed using $\verb|xstep=2cm|$ to be consistent with the axes.
• The x-axis path is saved as $\verb|xaxis|$

### Plotting a function in TikZ

As an example, we would like to draw the following function in the domain $[0,3.25]$:

$F(x)=\frac{1}{2}(x^2-1)$

which can be achieved by the following line of code:

\draw [orange,name path=Fx]
plot[smooth,domain=0:3.25] (\x, {0.5*\x^2-0.5})
node[right](Fx){$F(x)=\frac{1}{2}(x^2-1)$};

• The plot function path is named $\verb|Fx|$.
• To get a smooth plot, we added $\verb|smooth|$ to the plot options.

It should be noted that we plotted the function in TikZ without using the pgfplots package described in this tutorial "How to plot a function and data in LaTeX".

### Graph of one iteration

Let's start from the initial value $x_0=3$. We draw a dashed line from the point (3,0) until the point $(3,F(3))$.

\draw [dashed] (3,4) -- (3,0)
node[below=0.1cm] {$x_{0}$} ;



yields:

Then, we draw a tangent line of the function $F(x)$ at the point $(3,F(3))$

 \draw[violet,name path=Tangent] plot[smooth,domain=1.5:3] (\x, {3*\x-5});



The tangent line will intersect x-axis at the point $(x_1,0)$, which will be calculated using intersections library. Here is the final code of Newton's method:

\documentclass[border=0.5cm]{standalone}

\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{intersections}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[thick,x=2cm]

% Axes
\draw[black!10,dashed,xstep=2cm] (-1,-1) grid(5,6);
\draw[-latex,name path=xaxis] (-1,0) -- (4,0) node[above]{\large $x$};
\draw[-latex] (0,-1) -- (0,5.5)node[right]{\large $y$};
\foreach \i in {1,2,3} {\node at (\i,0) {$+$};}
\foreach \i in {1,2,3,4} {\node at (0,\i) {$+$};}

% Function plot
\draw[orange,name path=Fx]  plot[smooth,domain=0:3.25] (\x, {0.5*\x^2-0.5})
node[right](Fx){$F(x)=\frac{1}{2}(x^2-1)$};

% Dashed line
\draw [dashed] (3,4) -- (3,0)
node[below=0.1cm] {$x_{0}$} ;

% plot tangent line
\draw[violet,name path=Tangent] plot[smooth,domain=1.5:3] (\x, {3*\x-5});

%  Intersection
\draw [name intersections={of=Tangent and xaxis},fill=gray]
(intersection-1) circle(2pt)
node[below=0.1cm,fill=white]{$x_{1}$} ;

\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}


We have reached the end of this tutorial, I hope you find it useful ❤️❤️❤️!

If you have any remarks or suggestions, feel free to leave me a comment below.

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