Sihtfunktsiooni

Sihtfunktsiooni, often translated as target function or objective function, is a central concept in optimization problems. It represents the quantity that a decision-maker aims to maximize or minimize. In mathematical terms, a sihtfunktsiooni is a function that maps a set of decision variables to a single numerical value. The goal of an optimization problem is to find the values of the decision variables that yield the optimal value of the sihtfunktsiooni, subject to certain constraints.

The nature of the sihtfunktsiooni can vary greatly depending on the specific problem. For instance, in a business context, the sihtfunktsiooni might be profit, which a company aims to maximize, or cost, which it seeks to minimize. In engineering, it could be performance, efficiency, or reliability. In machine learning, it often refers to a loss function or cost function that the model attempts to minimize during training.

The properties of the sihtfunktsiooni are crucial for determining the appropriate optimization techniques. For example, if the sihtfunktsiooni is convex, it guarantees that any local minimum is also a global minimum, simplifying the search for the optimal solution. Non-convex sihtfunktsioone, on the other hand, can have multiple local optima, making global optimization more challenging. Understanding the sihtfunktsiooni is the first and most critical step in formulating and solving any optimization problem.