June 26, 2009

Solving Linear Programming Problems Using Google Spreadsheets

Google Spreadsheets has a new feature that lets you solve linear programming problems. "Informally, linear programming determines the way to achieve the best outcome (such as maximum profit or lowest cost) in a given mathematical model and given some list of requirements represented as linear equations," explains Wikipedia.

Google's help center has an article that details how to use the new feature. You can test it using a template offered by Google, but it's not very intuitive and it didn't work for me. I got an error message when clicking on Tools / Solve: "The goal specified must be a cell containing a valid formula."

13 comments:

  1. OHHHHH great.... I just sent that to my teacher..... cool.... we spent like half our to install solver in excel everytime we change labs... lol.... cool ;)

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  2. Can you help me solve non-linear problems :-)

    congrats guys.. Can someone ping me re: apps in the cloud. I'm doing something on SiliconAngle on this topic right now. Look for some Pros to chat with

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  3. If you try the template again, you will not get the error.

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  4. official google announcement:
    http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/06/solve-feature-lets-you-solve.html

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  5. You have to define the constraints and range in order to solve.

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  6. I haven't tried google spreasheet but im looking forward to use it.

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  7. this is gonna be a sweet time saver..

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  8. Google Spread sheet is the best thing i have ever used up in my life

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  9. Really great programming sheet. Thanks for info

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  10. You make shirts & blouses in your home. You sell your production to a client who insists on at least three blouses a week. You cannot make more than 5 shirts,nor more than 6 blouses a week. Added together, you can make a total of up to ten shirts and blouses a week. It costs you R100 to make a shirt and R15
    to make a blouse. Your client pays you R180 per shirt and R300 per blouse. Copy and Complete the following Table Shirt,Blouse,Together. Calculate the Minimum,Maximum and the Total of the mentioned above.

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  11. I always use google spreadsheet,work online anywhere anytime and access all your data easily..
    Google amazing creation..

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