diff --git a/Makefile.am b/Makefile.am
index 27d9dcda..a7c8b7fc 100644
--- a/Makefile.am
+++ b/Makefile.am
@@ -279,6 +279,7 @@ UTIL_FILES   =			\
     region.cpp			\
     region.hpp			\
     region.ipp			\
+    roots/bisection.hpp		\
     si.cpp			\
     signal.cpp			\
     signal.hpp			\
@@ -433,6 +434,7 @@ TEST_BIN = 			\
     test/rational		\
     test/region			\
     test/ripemd			\
+    test/roots/bisection	\
     test/sha1			\
     test/sha2			\
     test/signal			\
diff --git a/roots/bisection.hpp b/roots/bisection.hpp
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b6e8935f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/roots/bisection.hpp
@@ -0,0 +1,69 @@
+/*
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ *
+ * Copyright 2016 Danny Robson <danny@nerdcruft.net>
+ */
+
+#ifndef __UTIL_ROOTS_BISECTION_HPP
+#define __UTIL_ROOTS_BISECTION_HPP
+
+#include "../maths.hpp"
+
+#include <cmath>
+
+namespace util { namespace roots {
+    /// find a root of a function using the bisection method
+    ///
+    /// the user is responsible for ensuring there is in fact a root. there
+    /// is no iteration limit currently, so poorly considered arguments could
+    /// result in an infinite loop.
+    ///
+    /// a: lower bound
+    /// b: upper bound
+    /// f: real function
+    /// tolerance: minimum range termination condition
+    template <typename T>
+    T
+    bisection (T a, T b, T (*f)(T), T tolerance)
+    {
+        // to simplify the exit conditions we assume that a..b is an
+        // increasing range.
+        if (a > b)
+            std::swap (a, b);
+
+        while (b - a > tolerance) {
+            // calculate the midpoint
+            auto   c = (a + b) / T{2};
+            auto f_c = f (c);
+
+            // return early if we happened across the root
+            if (exactly_zero (f_c))
+                return c;
+
+            // check which interval we fell into, and divide for the next
+            // iteration
+            auto f_a = f (a);
+            if (samesign (f_a, f_c))
+                a = c;
+            else
+                b = c;
+        }
+
+        // we didn't find it exactly, but it's somewhere in this range so take
+        // a punt and return the middle of the range. not sure if this is
+        // valid mathematically.
+        return (a + b) / T{2};
+    }
+} }
+
+#endif
diff --git a/test/roots/bisection.cpp b/test/roots/bisection.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..10a5e645
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/roots/bisection.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+#include "roots/bisection.hpp"
+
+#include "tap.hpp"
+
+#include "maths.hpp"
+
+using util::pow;
+
+
+constexpr float order2 (float x) { return x * x + 3 * x - 7.f; }
+constexpr float order4 (float x) { return   10 * pow (x, 4u)
+                                          -270 * pow (x, 2u)
+                                          -140 * pow (x, 1u)
+                                          +1200; }
+
+struct {
+    float (*func) (float);
+    float lo;
+    float hi;
+    float root;
+    const char *msg;
+} TESTS[] = {
+    { order2, 0.f, 3.f, 0.5f * (std::sqrt (37.f) - 3.f), "order-2 bisection" },
+    { order4, 0.f, 5.f, 2.f, "order-4 bisection" }
+};
+
+
+int
+main (void)
+{
+    util::TAP::logger tap;
+
+    for (const auto &t: TESTS) {
+        constexpr float TOLERANCE = 0.00001f;
+        auto root = util::roots::bisection (t.lo, t.hi, t.func, TOLERANCE);
+        tap.expect_eq (root, t.root, t.msg);
+    }
+
+    return tap.status ();  
+}