Friday, February 10, 2006

Applying the simplex method is quite easy with the help of the row operations tool. Make sure you're efficient with this. The "Pivot on Selection" button is all you need for this. So a couple of clicks is all you generally need if you're choosing your pivot elements correctly.

Notice that there is not a great number of problems in the WebAssignments. This is partly because it's hard to make up good problems where all students get different versions of the question. (And I don't like to give WebAssign homework where everyone gets the same version because it would give credit for work that could easily be copied from another student.) I encourage you to use the method to solve a significant number of textbook problems. The text has lots of worked examples and homework problems with answers in the back of the book. You can easily give yourself more practice and check your understanding of the method by simply doing several problems for Section 3.1 from the text.