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Question: Error message when using Bisection method

Question:Error message when using Bisection method

benfaught 5 Maple 14
error student
September 08 2010
1

Hi, I am new to using maple. For one of my classes we have been asked to find the root of a function using the bisection method. The function I am trying to find the root for is x-2^(-x) for 0<=x<=1. This is the sequence of commands that I am using

 f:= x-> x-2^(-x);

a:=0; b:=1;

 while b-a> 0.00001 do

      m:= (a+b)/2:

      if f(a)*f(m) > 0 then a:= m: else b:=m: end if:

        print(a,b);

      end do:

at which point I get this message:

Error, cannot determine if this expression is true or false: 0 < -1/2+(1/2)*2^(1/2)

This seems like simple arithmetic. Why can't maple calculate this? If you have an idea please let me know.
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