Hi,

I'm an excel newbie and I came across the Solver Add-In in a search for a multi variable equation. The problem is I don't know how to set up the arguments required to give a range of results; or if the answer I seek is even possible with Solver.

As I said in the title bar, I would like to optimise the results required to achieve a certain score. The context is an archery round. There are 5 scoring zones on an archery target: 9, 7, 5, 3 and 1. For simplicity, assume all arrows score and there are no misses or zeros. 96 arrows are shot in the round and the record score for the round is 834 points.

So the first part of the equation can be described as A+B+C+D+E=96 with A being the total number of arrows that score 9; B score 7 etc. The second part can be described as A9+B7+C5+D3+E1=834.

Can solver be used to determine the lowest number of 9s required to achieve the record score and how do I set it out in Excel. I'd like to be able to set restrictions on some of the variables and see what that does to the results?

Any thoughts?