The bisection method is a root-finding algorithm that uses binary search to find roots or zeroes of a function. It works by repeatedly bisecting an interval and determining whether the root lies in the upper or lower interval based on the sign of the function. The algorithm converges to a root by halving the size of the bracketing interval at each iteration. An example applies the bisection method to find the depth at which a floating ball is submerged. After 10 iterations, the estimated root is found to two significant digits.