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The Euler–Lagrange equation was developed in connection with their studies of the tautochrone problem. The Euler–Lagrange equation was developed in the 1750s by Euler and Lagrange in connection with their studies of the tautochrone problem. This is the problem of determining a curve on which a weighted particle will fall to a fixed point in ...
Functions that maximize or minimize functionals may be found using the Euler–Lagrange equation of the calculus of variations. A simple example of such a problem is to find the curve of shortest length connecting two points. If there are no constraints, the solution is a straight line between the points. However, if the curve is constrained to ...
The solution to the brachistochrone problem is the cycloid. An example of an application of the Beltrami identity is the brachistochrone problem , which involves finding the curve y = y ( x ) {\displaystyle y=y(x)} that minimizes the integral
Lagrangian mechanics adopts energy rather than force as its basic ingredient, [5] leading to more abstract equations capable of tackling more complex problems. [6] Particularly, Lagrange's approach was to set up independent generalized coordinates for the position and speed of every object, which allows the writing down of a general form of ...
Informally, and perhaps less directly, since Hilbert's concept of a "regular variational problem" identifies this precisely as a variational problem whose Euler–Lagrange equation is an elliptic partial differential equation with analytic coefficients, [3] Hilbert's nineteenth problem, despite its seemingly technical statement, simply asks ...
There is also a second variation formula. [17] Due to the first variation formula, the Laplacian of f can be thought of as the gradient of the Dirichlet energy; correspondingly, a harmonic map is a critical point of the Dirichlet energy. [18] This can be done formally in the language of global analysis and Banach manifolds.
The general results presented above for Hamilton's principle can be applied to optics using the Lagrangian defined in Fermat's principle.The Euler-Lagrange equations with parameter σ =x 3 and N=2 applied to Fermat's principle result in ˙ = with k = 1, 2 and where L is the optical Lagrangian and ˙ = /.
Minimal surface theory originates with Lagrange who in 1762 considered the variational problem of finding the surface = (,) of least area stretched across a given closed contour. He derived the Euler–Lagrange equation for the solution