A method is presented for numerically determining local minima of differentiable functions of several variables. In the proeess of locating each minimum, a matrix is determined which characterizes the behavior of the function about the minimum. For a region in which thc function depends quadratically on the variables, no more than N iterations are required, where N is the number of variables. By suitable choice of starting values and without modification of the procedure, linear constraints can be imposed upon the variables. (auth)