Re: FindMinimum
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg51558] Re: [mg51547] FindMinimum
- From: DrBob <drbob at bigfoot.com>
- Date: Sat, 23 Oct 2004 00:21:39 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <200410220221.WAA07282@smc.vnet.net>
- Reply-to: drbob at bigfoot.com
- Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
If search routine moves along a gradient some discrete distance, it has no simple or fool-proof way of knowing whether it does, or does not, cross over a wall. It looks only at a finite number of points, so it can't really know the shape of the landscape. Bobby On Thu, 21 Oct 2004 22:21:33 -0400 (EDT), Steve Gray <stevebg at adelphia.net> wrote: > FindMinimum is described as finding strictly LOCAL minima of the finction. To me this means > that it will only go downward from the starting point. Therefore it should never cross "walls" or > regions of higher value, even if the specified search limits includes such regions. That is what I > wanted in a search of a highly nonlinear function of 2 variables. But I have some evidence that it > did not strictly search downward, but rather found the lowest value in the search range by crossing > over a region of higher value. > Can anyone describe more thoroughly or accurately exactly what it does? Thank you. > > Steve Gray > > > > -- DrBob at bigfoot.com www.eclecticdreams.net
- References:
- FindMinimum
- From: Steve Gray <stevebg@adelphia.net>
- FindMinimum