Find the minimum and maximum values of a function

[stepthom]

Implement a way to optimize (i.e., find the global maximum and minimum) a function. This should probably be in the form of two new functions in MathFunction:

-findMaximum(double a, double b) -findMinimum(double a, double b)

These functions should find the maximum and minimum values, respectively, of the function between points a and b, inclusively.

There are many ways to solve this problem; see Wikipedia for a brief discussion:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_optimization

There might be a better resource online.

I'm looking for a solution that:

• Works
• Is as simple as possible (hopefully we won't have to add huge amounts of helper classes nor rework the architecture of the entire system)
• Runs in a reasonable amount of time, although it doesn't have to be ground breaking.
• Is tested.

EasyMain can just set a=-50 and b=50 for now. Thus, the min and max value between -50 and 50 will be printed.