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A trivial example. In mathematics, the mountain climbing problem is a mathematical problem that considers a two-dimensional mountain range (represented as a continuous function), and asks whether it is possible for two mountain climbers starting at sea level on the left and right sides of the mountain to meet at the summit, while maintaining equal altitudes at all times.
Finding global maxima and minima is the goal of mathematical optimization. If a function is continuous on a closed interval, then by the extreme value theorem, global maxima and minima exist. Furthermore, a global maximum (or minimum) either must be a local maximum (or minimum) in the interior of the domain, or must lie on the boundary of the ...
Finding the extrema of functionals is similar to finding the maxima and minima of functions. The maxima and minima of a function may be located by finding the points where its derivative vanishes (i.e., is equal to zero). The extrema of functionals may be obtained by finding functions for which the functional derivative is equal to zero.
Maxima and minima; First derivative test; Second derivative test; Extreme value theorem; Differential equation; Differential operator; Newton's method; Taylor's theorem; L'Hôpital's rule; General Leibniz rule; Mean value theorem; Logarithmic derivative; Differential (calculus) Related rates; Regiomontanus' angle maximization problem; Rolle's ...
The geometric interpretation of Newton's method is that at each iteration, it amounts to the fitting of a parabola to the graph of () at the trial value , having the same slope and curvature as the graph at that point, and then proceeding to the maximum or minimum of that parabola (in higher dimensions, this may also be a saddle point), see below.
In numerical analysis, a quasi-Newton method is an iterative numerical method used either to find zeroes or to find local maxima and minima of functions via an iterative recurrence formula much like the one for Newton's method, except using approximations of the derivatives of the functions in place of exact derivatives.
The conditions that distinguish maxima, or minima, from other stationary points are called 'second-order conditions' (see 'Second derivative test'). If a candidate solution satisfies the first-order conditions, then the satisfaction of the second-order conditions as well is sufficient to establish at least local optimality.
So a method of finding a global maximum (or minimum) is to look at all the local maxima (or minima) in the interior, and also look at the maxima (or minima) of the points on the boundary; and take the biggest (or smallest) one. Is there an efficient way to find the global maximum/minimum? Take for example the sine integral. It has an infinite ...