Re: gnumeric-list Digest, Vol 59, Issue 21

["Andreas J. Guelzow" <aguelzow math concordia ab ca>]

On Thu, 2009-03-26 at 08:55 -0600, Jim Martin wrote:
> Hello again Mario and other Gnumeric Gurus:
> 
> The spreadsheet and the tutorial that go with it are now published
> online at www.sportsci.org. The direct link the article is
> http://sportsci.org/2009/sjejcm.htm  Once you go the article, you will
> see a link to the spreadsheet.  If any of you have time and interest,
> I would really appreciate it if you would have a look at the
> spreadsheet and try to use solver to derive the Fourier Coefficients
> in Gnumeric. The coefficients are determined by minimizing the sum of
> squared error term (cell E2) by changing the coefficients (cells in
> column G highlighted in yellow). OpenOffice Calc will do it but it
> takes minutes to converge to a solution whereas Excel converges in
> seconds. If any of you can get Gnumeric to do this (and show me how) I
> will be happy to send an addendum to the journal describing how to do
> the same thing with Gnumeric. Could be a way to recruit a new group of
> Gnumeric users. 

According to the Gnumeric solver dialog, the solver uses a simplex
algorithm to optimize the function. I really don't think that is the
right tool for your kind of problem.

Which kind of algorithm is used by OpenOffice Calc and/or Excel? 
> 

(I doubt that there is a general solver that will "converge in seconds"
for an arbitrary problem.)

Andreas
-- 
Andreas J. Guelzow, PhD, FTICA
Coordinator, Mathematical & Computing Sciences
Concordia University College of Alberta