The Calculus of Variations
math.hunter.cuny.edu › mbenders › cofvThe Calculus of Variations is concerned with solving Extremal Problems for a Func-tional. That is to say Maximum and Minimum problems for functions whose domain con-tains functions, Y(x) (or Y(x1;¢¢¢x2), or n-tuples of functions). The range of the functional will be the real numbers, R Examples: I.
Brief notes on the calculus of variations
www.maths.ed.ac.uk › ~jmf › Teachingyear students in the University of Edinburgh, for whom these notes were written in the rst place. Contents 1. Introduction 1 2. Finding extrema of functions of several variables 2 3. A motivating example: geodesics 2 4. The fundamental lemma of the calculus of variations 4 5. The Euler{Lagrange equation 6 6. Hamilton’s principle of least ...
7.2 Calculus of Variations - MIT Mathematics
math.mit.edu › classes › 187.2. CALCULUS OF VARIATIONS c 2006 Gilbert Strang 7.2 Calculus of Variations One theme of this book is the relation of equations to minimum principles. To minimize P is to solve P 0 = 0. There may be more to it, but that is the main point. For a quadratic P(u) = 1 2 uTKu uTf, there is no di culty in reaching P 0 = Ku f = 0. The matrix K is ...
Notes on The Calculus of Variations
faculty.uml.edu › cbyrne › covNotes on The Calculus of Variations Charles Byrne (Charles Byrne@uml.edu) Department of Mathematical Sciences University of Massachusetts at Lowell Lowell, MA 01854, USA April 2, 2009 1 Introduction Typically, we have been concerned with maximizing or minimizing real-valued func-tions of one or several variables, possibly subject to constraints.
The Calculus of Variations: An Introduction
www.uu.edu › dept › mathWhat is the Calculus of Variations “Calculus of variations seeks to find the path, curve, surface, etc., for which a given function has a stationary value (which, in physical problems, is usually a minimum or maximum).” (MathWorld Website) Variational calculus had its beginnings in 1696 with John Bernoulli Applicable in Physics