Discuss other comments on this HW or next one. When you finish, use the help facility to get more information on solver, a tool to help solve problems with several unknowns. Uses very sophisticated optimization techniques to solve problems with several unknowns given certain constraints.
Simplex method is one popular technique it uses.
Click here to download file Downloading data into Excel for further analysis can be a big time saver. Takes too long to write code on bigger systems, and many people know how to use Excel. Key is to store data in a central location and download it onto smaller systems. File open, text files, then Excel starts text import wizard. Do sample on p. 11.5-11.11.