Linear Programming Guide

simplex method, standard technique in linear programming for solving an optimization problem, typically one involving a function and several constraints expressed as inequalities. The inequalities define a polygonal region, and the solution is typically at one of the vertices. The simplex method is a systematic procedure for testing the vertices as possible solutions.

Some simple optimization problems can be solved by drawing the constraints on a graph. However, this method is useful only for systems of inequalities involving two variables. In practice, problems often involve hundreds of equations with thousands of variables, which can result in an astronomical number of extreme points. In 1947 George Dantzig, a mathematical adviser for the U.S. Air Force, devised the simplex method to restrict the number of extreme points that have to be examined. The simplex method is one of the most useful and efficient algorithms ever invented, and it is still the standard method employed on computers to solve optimization problems.