Bug of Solver?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Paul Smith
  • Start date Start date
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Paul Smith

Dear All

In A1 put

=(B3-B4)^2

and in B3 and B4 put 0. Afterwards, use Solver to maximize the formula
in A1 by changing B3:B4 and with the following constraints:

B3:B4<=1
B3:B4>=0

The maximum is 1 but Solver founds 0 as the maximum. Is is a bug of
Solver?

Thanks in advance,

Paul
 
Solver is just quiting early because it got confused when the starting
values in B3:B4 are equal. Try starting Solver with different values in B3
& B4 and it "should" work.
I would delete the constraint that B3:B4>=0 and instead check the option to
"Assume non-negative."

- -
HTH :>)
Dana DeLouis
Windows XP & Office 2007
 
Solver is just quiting early because it got confused when the starting
values in B3:B4 are equal. Try starting Solver with different values in B3
& B4 and it "should" work.
I would delete the constraint that B3:B4>=0 and instead check the option to
"Assume non-negative."

- -
HTH :>)
Dana DeLouis
Windows XP & Office 2007
Click to expand...

It seems that there is here a problem of reliability, as one never
knows whether the solution provided by Excel is correct or not. In the
case that I reported, it is fairly simple to see that the solution
provided by Excel (without any warning!) is incorrect, but, in
general,
that is not so simple and one may take a wrong solution as a correct
one.

Paul
 
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