Loopy l is more like an index than a measurement I think, and given that p=1 that equation is not very frightening at all.

I don't think Solver is the right approach, just loops.


Cheers

Greg Locock


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Use a while loop containing a for loop for the summation. That's a funny old function, what is it?

Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

Thanks Greg!

I must admit my knowledge in this area has not been used for many many years, and to add I'm very new to MathCAD.

I am playing with the FOR and WHILE loops right, and despite the examples online I'm a bit lost. Can you elaborate how to set this up?

This is from a paper that proposes a procedure for determining the capacity of a surge bin between two machines based on their rates, availability, etc.

In pseudo code, since I don't have mathcad
Y=user input
L=1
P=1
thisE=Y
while thisE<Y
L=L+1
thisE=longcomplicatedfunctionof P and L using a for loop

end while

print(L)

end

The problem I have with it is that unless I have mistranscribed your equation, E is always negative

Cheers

Greg Locock


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So here's how I did it in Smath, a very similar program to Mathcad. You can see why I am confused- the grayed out section would give the L you want, but since all values of E were negative it is no good. You need to reset L to 0 or delete the active while loop to use the second one.



Cheers

Greg Locock


New here? Try reading these, they might help FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

Have you tried graphing the equation? Keeping E as a function of L, with increasing L, the graph =<0.E(2)= -6.373, after which a step is seen, giving -14.273 and, with increasing L, the curve goes negative rapidly. Looks as though the solution is highly dependent on your given Y.

Thank you to all for your commentary and input. If either of you are interested in seeing the paper that describes this procedure please email me at mechowl1980@gmail.com

Maybe it will be helpful to understand this equation. I have two identical papers printed by two separate publishers and the equation in one of them is missing a ( which leads me to believe there is a small possibility the equation is incorrect. Anyways I'm stuck too.

Thanks again.

Unfortunately neither paper presents a derivation of that equation.

Cheers

Greg Locock


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