function retval = powell(x)
% usage:  y = powell(x)
% description: Returns value of powell function
% assuming that x is a column vector of length 4.
% Typical starting point for min: (3,-1,0,1)
% Minimum at (0,0,0,0)

% a little bit of bulletproofing
if (~isvector(x) | (length(x) ~= 4))
  error('powell: needs a two-dimensional vector argument');
end
if (size(x,2) ~= 1)
  error('powell: needs a column vector');
end 
% the actual calculation
retval = (x(1)+10*x(2))^2+5*(x(3)-x(4))^2+(x(2)-2*x(3))^4+(10*x(1)-x(4))^4;