Chapter 5
Quadratic Programming
Geometry
This chapter develops the essential ideas of quadratic progra mming
(QP). Section 5.1 shows how to solve a 2-dimensional QP by geometri-
cal reasoning. In Section 5.2, optimality conditions are formulated for
a QP, again using geometrical reasoning. In Section 5.3, it is shown
how to draw elliptic level sets for a quadratic function. In Section 5.4,
optimality conditions for a QP having n variables and m inequality
constraints, are formulated and proven to be sufficient for optimality.
5.1 The Geometry of QPs
The purpose of this section is to introduce t he most important prop-
erties o f quadratic progra mming by means of geometrical examples.
We first show how to determine a n optimal solution geometrically. A
ma ...