Re: Math Package to Solve Linear Equations?
On Sat, 6 Oct 2007, Thomas H. George wrote:
I'm feeling stupid. I used to have a math package which inverted
matrices to solve systems of linear equations - i.e. enter the matrix
and the y values and the program inverts the matrix and reports the x
values. I know how to do it manually but it is laborious for large
matrices. Perhaps Openoffice.calc/solver does this but it is not clear
to me how to enter data for solver to do this. apt-cache search matrix
|grep inversion doesn't turn up anything.
There are better ways to solve systems of linear equations than by
inverting matrices -- please consult a numerical analysis text.
Would someone please beat me over the head and point me to a simple
package to do this job?
There are several "matrix languages" that support array data and provide
matric inversion as well as solvers, including: Matlab/octave, IDL/gdl,
S+/R. Of these, the S+/R language is the most modern. It is written by
and for statisticians, but offers much the same linear algebra
capabilities found in Matlab/octave and IDL/gdl. If you aren't already
familiar with Matlab or IDL then I recommend R. The documentation is
excellent and it is very widely used.
--
George N. White III <aa056@chebucto.ns.ca>
Reply to: