MATHEMATICAL FORMULATION: A PROBLEM IN DESIGN

The relationship between formulation and design is examined. The main aspects of mathematical formulation are the development of definitions of variables and the functional relationships of the variables required to model the situation under study. There are many ways to attack these two aspects since there can be many mathematical formulations for the same problem description. The design of an efficient mathematical formulation is an activity analogous to other engineering design activities. In this paper the design aspects of mathematical formulation are discussed and an example illustrating the design considerations is presented.