Talk:Cutting-plane method

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I'm sure the mathematical presentation of cutting planes in this article makes sense to someone (other than the author) but it makes no sense to me. I came to wikipedia because I am not familiar with cutting planes, though I get the basic idea. Then I see a sequence of formulae, with practically no explanation of what they are supposed to mean. What is b-bar? (with an overbar) What does x_f stand for? What is the point that the sequence of formulae is trying to make?

Hi, I agree the description could be improved. The b-bar is the vector of right-hand side values b. transformed by left-multiplication by the B-inverse matrix, i.e., b-bar = B-inverse * b. The notation x_f represents a vector of nonbasic variables which contain (at least one) fractional component(s). Also, the text should read "Basis B", not "Base B". Hope this helps. Ralphey (talk) 00:40, 18 April 2008 (UTC)ralphey