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Calculus of variations is concerned with variations of functionals, which are small changes in the functional's value due to small changes in the function that is its argument. The first variation [ l ] is defined as the linear part of the change in the functional, and the second variation [ m ] is defined as the quadratic part.
The costate variables () can be interpreted as Lagrange multipliers associated with the state equations. The state equations represent constraints of the minimization problem, and the costate variables represent the marginal cost of violating those constraints; in economic terms the costate variables are the shadow prices.
In mathematics, specifically in the calculus of variations, a variation δf of a function f can be concentrated on an arbitrarily small interval, but not a single point. Accordingly, the necessary condition of extremum ( functional derivative equal zero) appears in a weak formulation (variational form) integrated with an arbitrary function δf .
In the calculus of variations and classical mechanics, the Euler–Lagrange equations [1] are a system of second-order ordinary differential equations whose solutions are stationary points of the given action functional. The equations were discovered in the 1750s by Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler and Italian mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange.
The calculus of variations (or variational calculus) is a field of mathematical analysis that uses variations, which are small changes in functions and functionals, to find maxima
In mathematics, the direct method in the calculus of variations is a general method for constructing a proof of the existence of a minimizer for a given functional, [1] introduced by Stanisław Zaremba and David Hilbert around 1900. The method relies on methods of functional analysis and topology. As well as being used to prove the existence of ...
The curve has to minimize its potential energy = = + ′, and is subject to the constraint + ′ =, where is the force of gravity. Because the independent variable x {\displaystyle x} does not appear in the integrand, the Beltrami identity may be used to express the path of the string as a separable first order differential equation
For example, the problem of determining the shape of a hanging chain suspended at both ends—a catenary—can be solved using variational calculus, and in this case, the variational principle is the following: The solution is a function that minimizes the gravitational potential energy of the chain.