Given an expression containing one or more variables, this special tool will attempt to find the values of these variables which make the expression take its minimum value. This is analogous to finding the lowest point in mountainous terrain, except that the problem may be set in more than just two horizontal dimensions.

The following image shows the finding of the minimum value of an expression containing three variables. This is a contrived example, for which the results can be easily verified by inspection.

Each variable in the expression is named and given an initial value. UltimaCalc will attempt to locate the deepest minimum, starting from the given initial location.

The button marked 'Show' will show the results to greater precision and allow copying of the results to the Windows clipboard.

As in other special tool windows, the notebook icon enables you to write notes on the calculation. The data and notes can be saved to a plain text file for future reference.

The icon to the right of this button will clear away all the data. To the right of this is an icon of a log book. Clicking on this will cause the calculation and its results to be saved to a log file.