3: Linear Programming - A Geometric Approach
In this chapter, you will learn to:
- Solve linear programming problems that maximize the objective function.
- Solve linear programming problems that minimize the objective function.
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- 3.1: Maximization Applications
- Application problems in business, economics, and social and life sciences often ask us to make decisions on the basis of certain conditions. The conditions or constraints often take the form of inequalities. In this section, we will begin to formulate, analyze, and solve such problems, at a simple level, to understand the many components of such a problem.
Thumbnail: A pictorial representation of a simple linear program with two variables and six inequalities. The set of feasible solutions is depicted in yellow and forms a polygon, a 2-dimensional polytope. The linear cost function is represented by the red line and the arrow: The red line is a level set of the cost function, and the arrow indicates the direction in which we are optimizing. (CC0; Ylloh via Wikipedia)