R help - Nov 2005 - Solution to non-linear equation problem

Thanks to Gabor, Duncan, and Peter. I knew the answer had something to 
do with solving for a and b in terms of mean and variance. I will build 
a function using the equations you provided Duncan and will  look into 
using Mathomatic in the future Gabor. Appreciate the help. Peter, this 
was not homework but I understand your concern. I don't use listserves 
that often but they do open a whole arena for students to get free 
information (hadn't even crossed my mind). Just as an aside, I take it 
that R cannot solve non-linear equations (since you all gave me 
solutions outside of it).


-- 
Scott Story
Graduate Student
MSU Ecology Department
319 Lewis Hall
Bozeman, Mt 59717
406.994.2670
sstory at montana.edu

RSiteSearch("solving nonlinear equations") just returned 42 hits for 
me, many of them potentially relevant to your question.  And there are 
more capabilities than what I found listed in the first few responses, 
including nlme in addition to optim, nls, etc.  A more focused question 
as suggested in the posting guide! 
http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html might elicit more 
informative responses.

	  spencer graves

Scott Story wrote:
> 	Thanks to Gabor, Duncan, and Peter. I knew the answer had something to 
> do with solving for a and b in terms of mean and variance. I will build 
> a function using the equations you provided Duncan and will  look into 
> using Mathomatic in the future Gabor. Appreciate the help. Peter, this 
> was not homework but I understand your concern. I don't use listserves 
> that often but they do open a whole arena for students to get free 
> information (hadn't even crossed my mind). Just as an aside, I take it 
> that R cannot solve non-linear equations (since you all gave me 
> solutions outside of it).
> 
> 
-- 
Spencer Graves, PhD
Senior Development Engineer
PDF Solutions, Inc.
333 West San Carlos Street Suite 700
San Jose, CA 95110, USA

spencer.graves at pdf.com
www.pdf.com <http://www.pdf.com>
Tel:  408-938-4420
Fax: 408-280-7915