My apologies. The objective function should be > Obj := (1/4*a[1]+3/4*a[2]+7/8*a[3]+a[4]+15/8*a[5]+2*a[6]+19/8*a[7]+21/8*a[8]-1/4*b[1]-3/4*b[2]-7/8*b[3]-b[4]-15/8*b[5]-2*b[6]-19/8*b[7]-21/8*b[8])^2+(1/4*b[1]+3/4*b[2]+7/8*b[3]+b[4]+15/8*b[5]+2*b[6]+19/8*b[7]+21/8*b[8]-1/4*a[1]-3/4*a[2]-7/8*a[3]-a[4]-15/8*a[5]-2*a[6]-19/8*a[7]-21/8*a[8])^2; Thanks to roman_pearce I have rewitten the binomal constraint 4. Also I forgot I needed another binomial constraint- containt 5 with constraints > Constaint1:=add(a[n], n = 1 .. 8) = 4; > Constaint2:=add(b[n], n = 1 .. 8) = 4; > Constaint3:=seq(a[n]+b[n] = 1, n = 1 .. 8); > Constaint4:=seq(a[n]*(a[n]-1) = 0, n = 1 .. 8); > Constaint5:=seq(b[n]*(b[n]-1) = 0, n = 1 .. 8); > with(Optimization) > NLPSolve(Obj, {Constraint1, Constraint2, Constraint3, Constaint4, Constraint5}, assume = nonnegative) Error, (in Optimization:-NLPSolve) constraints must be specified as a set or list of equalities and inequalities Still get the same error. Constraint4 and 5 are the problems. What I want is an output that is binomial, eg > evalf(subs(a[1] = 1, a[2] = 0, a[3] = 0, a[4] = 1, a[5] = 0, a[6] = 1, a[7] = 0, a[8] = 1, b[1] = 0, b[2] = 1, b[3] = 1, b[4] = 0, b[5] = 1, b[6] = 0, b[7] = 1, b[8] = 0, Obj)); Believe it or not the above effort is to work out a better method to allocate table tennis teams from n players (n divisible by 4): it’s about minimizing the variance between the teams. Using the brute force and blind ignorance approach, I set up an excel spreadsheet with a whole stack of binomial indicator variables -either in the team (1) or not (0). This method works for teams up to 3. Beyond that the combinations increase according to C(n,4) and Excel churns away forever. Hence the above Maple approach.

thanks. a good resource that pdf file

too easy cheers

too easy cheers

thankyou

thankyou