Algo #113: Inverse of a number (without division)

Problem Statement:
                Calculate Inverse of number without using '/ '  operator.

Solution:
       There could be multiple techniques for solving this problem but in this post i will solve this problem using Newton Raphson's Method. Refer to my earlier post on Newton Raphson for Square Roots.

Lets code up our logic.

public static void main(String[] args) {

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inverse(0.2f);  inverse(0.3f);  inverse(3.3f); }   private static float inverse(float num) {  float x1= num,x2=0,temp=num,e=0.001f;  do  {   x1 = temp;   x2 = x1 * (2 - num*x1);   temp=x2;  }while(Math.abs(x2-x1)> e);     System.out.println(num + " ----> " + x2);  return x2; }

PS: The choice of the initial value may or may not converge the function and thus may not give correct result which is drawback of Newton Raphson's method

References:
1. http://www.sosmath.com/calculus/diff/der07/der07.html
2. https://www.math.ubc.ca/~anstee/math104/104newtonmethod.pdf
3. http://www.codecogs.com/eqnedit.php
4. Wiki