Why does this function return the largest integer less than or equal to √n?

Question

I've been asked this question by my teacher. The function I'm talking about is the following:

SqrtFloor[n_Integer] := 
 Module[{a = n, b = Quotient[n + 1, 2]}, 
  While[b < a, a = b; b = Quotient[a^2 + n, 2 a]]; a]

I understand the code, but I don't know what is the mathematical concept behind it. Why does it return the largest integer less than or equal to √n?

Answer 1

This is a discretized version of Newton's Method where f(x) = x^2 - a, which has a zero at x = Sqrt[a]. Wikipedia With initial guess x = n, (x^2 + n)/(2 x) decreases at each step until x <= Sqrt(n).