Mathematica Minimization help in mathematica

AI Thread Summary
The discussion revolves around a constrained minimization problem in Mathematica involving eight variables (c2 to c9) with specific quadratic terms and constraints. The original poster is struggling to achieve the desired results and seeks assistance. A user responds, noting that their version of Mathematica quickly produces a trivial solution where all variables take their minimum boundary values. This prompts a further exploration of the problem, leading to the introduction of an additional constraint: the sum of all variables must equal 2200. After applying this new constraint, a larger solution is found, but questions arise regarding why some solutions remain at the boundaries despite the presence of inequality constraints. The conversation highlights the nature of optimization problems, where solutions can sometimes lie at the boundaries, especially when maximizing or minimizing under certain conditions.
quantumfireball
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Hi
i am finding difficulty in minimzing the following in mathematica.
Can someone try it out and share with me the results.
Its urgent.

Its a constrained minimization problem in 8 variables c2,c3...c9
Can it be tried out in MATLAB or maple?

NMinimize[{1.383` c2^2 + 1.377` c3^2 + 1.2618` c4^2 + 1.36` c5^2 +
1.357` c6^2 + 1.29` c7^2 + 1.35` c8^2 + 1.349` c9^2 +
2 (-0.016892` c2 c3 - 0.02962` c3 c4 - 0.01903` c3 c5 -
0.03682` c4 c5 - 0.0170` c4 c6 - 0.03789` c5 c6 +
0.0107` c3 c7 - 0.02034` c5 c7 - 0.05074` c6 c7 +
0.01112` c3 c8 + 0.01282` c4 c8 - 0.0299` c6 c8 -
0.05788` c7 c8 - 0.0275` c7 c9 - 0.0588` c8 c9),
466 < c2 < 2059, 272 < c3 < 893, 171 < c4 < 475,
116 < c5 < 288, 83 < c6 < 191, 63 < c7 < 135, 49 < c8 < 101,
40 < c9 < 78}, {c2, c3, c4, c5, c6, c7, c8, c9}]
 
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Why do you have problems with that in Mathematica?
Which version are you using?
It takes my version 6.0 only 0,25 second to produce
{465436., {c2 -> 466., c3 -> 272., c4 -> 171., c5 -> 116., c6 -> 83., c7 -> 63., c8 -> 49., c9 -> 40.}}
 
CompuChip said:
Why do you have problems with that in Mathematica?
Which version are you using?
It takes my version 6.0 only 0,25 second to produce
{465436., {c2 -> 466., c3 -> 272., c4 -> 171., c5 -> 116., c6 -> 83., c7 -> 63., c8 -> 49., c9 -> 40.}}

My dear friend i too got the same thing but are you blind to not notice that it gives only trivial values,that is the c values are just the values of the less then equality.
 
And have you noticed yet that in each of the ci, the expression is quadratic so if the map
c_i \mapsto f(c_1, c_2, \cdots, c_i, \cdots, c_9)
where f is the expression you want to minimize, and all other values of c are fixed, has its minimum on the boundary (in particular, on the left boundary) then it is not strange that f is minimized by taking all the c on their left boundaries?
 
CompuChip said:
And have you noticed yet that in each of the ci, the expression is quadratic so if the map
c_i \mapsto f(c_1, c_2, \cdots, c_i, \cdots, c_9)
where f is the expression you want to minimize, and all other values of c are fixed, has its minimum on the boundary (in particular, on the left boundary) then it is not strange that f is minimized by taking all the c on their left boundaries?

Sorry i forgot to add the following additional constraint:

c2+c3+c4+c5+c6+c7+c8+c9=2200

try it now
 
Then I get a somewhat larger answer

{1.04414*10^6, {c2 -> 466., c3 -> 466., c4 -> 475., c5 -> 288., c6 -> 191., c7 -> 135., c8 -> 101., c9 -> 78.}}

That is still not what you want?
 
CompuChip said:
Then I get a somewhat larger answer

{1.04414*10^6, {c2 -> 466., c3 -> 466., c4 -> 475., c5 -> 288., c6 -> 191., c7 -> 135., c8 -> 101., c9 -> 78.}}

That is still not what you want?

The soln does satisfy the constraint,but since i have included e\inequality constraints as well,why are some solutions on the boudary.Should,nt they be within in?

c1+c2+...c9=2200
 
Last edited:
Not necessarily. For example,

NMaximize[{x + y, 0 < x < 100, -10 < y < 10}, {x, y}]

gives x = 100, y = 10; the best way to maximize x + y is to make both variables as large as possibly allowed. If x = 100 and y = 10 is really not allowed, you should get as close as you can (e.g. x = 99, y = 9; if they must be integers).
 
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