Re: I prefer

[frankus]

Where is the Hessian? Eh?
I mean, do you think I join a monastary for anything other than the feel
of course sack-cloth chaffing me as I go about my daily routines in my habit?

--

Brother Frankus.

¤

[ariels]

I've never seen a Hessian in the monastery. Although, if someone asked about identifying local maxima of functions with several variables, it's possible that the matrix

∂2f/∂x1∂x1 ... ∂2f/∂x1∂xn

... ... ... ...
∂2f/∂xn∂x1 ... ∂2f/∂xn∂xn

would get mentioned as a way to distinguish minima from maxima.