I think there is sufficient confusion amoung these posts to warrent another (hopefully non-confusing) post
thedc: For Newton-Raphson, you are looking for the zero of a function (F), hence, you need to express the function (F) such that F(x) = 0.
In your original post, you desire to find the answer to [itex]x[/itex] for [itex]x = \sqrt{2}[/itex]. Consider the more general solution for [itex]x[/itex] with [itex]x = \sqrt{A}[/itex] for some positive [itex]A[/itex].
Question: How can we express a function, [itex]F(x)[/itex], such that it results in [itex]F(x)=0[/itex] for this problem?
Answer: Look at the [itex]x = \sqrt{A}[/itex]. This is really the same as finding [itex]x^2[/itex] such that [itex]x^2 = A[/itex]. Hence, one selection of [itex]F(x)[/itex] might be [itex]F(x) = x^2 - A=0[/itex].
This is the "F" that is needed in the N-R method. The iterates for the solution of x are as follows:
[tex]
x_{\nu+1} = x_{\nu}-\frac{F(x_{\nu})}{F'(x_{\nu})}[/tex]
Here, [itex]F'(x)[/itex] is shorthand to mean [itex]\frac{d\,}{dx}F(x)[/itex]. Also, in your case, the vale of A is A=2. You will need an initial estimate [itex]x_{0}[/itex] to start this procedure.
The key to achieve the end goal of your exercise is to do some algebra on the resulting iterate expresion once you take the derivative of F and substitute it into the expression.
Hope this helps.