Re: Baffled by FindMinimum
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg124901] Re: Baffled by FindMinimum
- From: David Skulsky <edskulsky at gmail.com>
- Date: Sat, 11 Feb 2012 06:38:17 -0500 (EST)
- Delivered-to: l-mathgroup@mail-archive0.wolfram.com
- References: <jh2t6j$o9$1@smc.vnet.net>
According to the documentation, "The functions FindMinimum, FindMaximum, and FindRoot have the HoldAll attribute and so have special semantics for evaluation of their arguments. First, the variables are determined from the second argument, then they are localized. Next, the function is evaluated symbolically, then processed into an efficient form for numerical evaluation. Finally, during the execution of the command, the function is repeatedly evaluated with different numerical values..." What you're seeing, I believe, is the symbolic evaluation step. David