Simplest way to solve mathematical equations in Python

Question

I want to solve a set of equations, linear, or sometimes quadratic. I don\'t have a specific problem, but often, I have been in this situation often.

It is simple to

Answer 1

A free web-service for solving large-scale systems of nonlinear equations (1 million+) is APMonitor.com. There is a browser interface and an API to Python / MATLAB. The API to Python is a single script (apm.py) that is available for download from the apmonitor.com homepage. Once the script is loaded into a Python code, it gives the ability to solve problems of:

• Nonlinear equations
• Differential and algebraic equations
• Least squares model fitting
• Moving horizon estimation
• Nonlinear model predictive control
• etc.

For the new user, the APM Python software has a Google Groups forum where a user can post questions. There are bi-weekly webinars that showcase optimization problems in operations research and engineering.

Below is an example of an optimization problem (hs71.apm).

Model

  Variables

    x[1] = 1, >=1, <=5

    x[2] = 5, >=1, <=5

    x[3] = 5, >=1, <=5

    x[4] = 1, >=1, <=5

  End Variables



  Equations

    x[1] * x[2] * x[3] * x[4] > 25

    x[1]^2 + x[2]^2 + x[3]^2 + x[4]^2 = 40



    minimize  x[1] * x[4] * (x[1]+x[2]+x[3]) + x[3]

  End Equations

End Model

The optimization problem is solved with the following Python script:

# Import

from apm import *

# Select server

server = 'http://xps.apmonitor.com'

# Application name

app = 'eqn'

# Clear previous application

apm(server,app,'clear all')

# Load model file

apm_load(server,app,'hs71.apm')

# Option to select solver (1=APOPT, 2=BPOPT, 3=IPOPT)

apm_option(server,app,'nlc.solver',3)

# Solve on APM server

solver_output = apm(server,app,'solve')


# Display solver output

print solver_output


# Retrieve results

results = apm_sol(server,app)

# Display results

print '--- Results of the Optimization Problem ---'

print results

# Display Results in Web Viewer 

url = apm_var(server,app)

print "Opened Web Viewer: " + url