Describe how solving problem can be reduced to solving a

Question

1. Consider the following unconstrained optimization problem:

Maximize f(x)= 3x₁x₂ + 3x₂x₃ - x₁² - 6x₂² - x₃².

a. describe how solving this problem can be reduced to solving a two variable unconstrained optimization problem.

b. Starting from the initial trial solution(x₁,x₂,x₃)=(1,1,1), interactively apply the gradient search procedure with epsilon = 0.05 to solve approximately the two variable problem identified in part a.

Note: This problem comes from the book Introduction To Operations Research by Hillier 10th ed.