The Simplex Method for Beginners

Although there are many excellent discussions of linear programming and the simplex method, a beginning student or a person whose high school algebra has grown somewhat rusty finds that the tableau presentation and associated notation are difficult to understand, let alone utilize. Related problems of presentation arise if one is a lecturer allotted only a couple of hours to ‘explain linear programming’. I have had some success in overcoming such problems of exposition with the artificial example given below, which—as will be evident to experienced practitioners of the art—is merely the original simplex method without detached coefficients. Perhaps other beginners or lecturers might also find the presentation of help. I have deliberately taken ‘author's liberty’ in selecting an example that avoids certain troublesome details in the application of the simplex method, some of these details are discussed at the end of the paper.