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Gradient Optimization 115
Figure 5.2.
Circuit optimization iteration.
on that surface. Facetiously, Hyde (1966) quotes Joseph Petzval as having said
in the 1800s that the optimal solution is the best one you have when the
money runs out.
It should be mentioned that maximizing some function, say Q(x), is
equivalent to minimizing its negative, e.g., - Q(x); the sign just turns the
surface upside down. All subsequent discussion refers to minimization without
loss of generality.
Figure 5.3. A surface over two-variable space; an elliptic function. [From TABLES OF FUNC­
TIONS WITH FORMULAE AND CURVES by Dr. Eugene Jahnke and Fritz Emde, 1945,
Dover Publications, Inc., New York.)