How can you find the minimum of a function?

Answer 1

There are to classes of methods to find the minimum of a function: analytical and numerical. Analytical methods are precise but cannot be applied always. For example, we can find the minimum of a function by setting its first derivative to zero and solve for the variable and then check the second derivative (must be positive). Numerical methods involve the application of steps repeatedly until an acceptable estimate of the solution is found. Numerical methods include Newton method, steepest descent method, golden section method, Simplex method, to name just a few.