CALCULUS OF VARIATIONS

DEFINICIONES BASICAS

ECUACIONES DIFERENCIALES PARCIALES

FUNCTIONAL

The general problem is to find the function y(x), that makes the following
integral a minimum:

(1)

where F is of a known form and x1 and x2 are given endpoints; (1) is

termed a functional, it takes functions as its argument.

The starting point is to represent the infinite set of curves passing through the
given endpoints that differ from the extremal curve by “small” amounts. These
curves, Y(x), are represented by perturbing the extremal curve, y(x), by a function
and is zero at x1 and x2 and is arbitrary between the endpoints

(2)
FUNCTIONAL
 FUNCTIONAL

Where  is a scalar parameter. Differentiating (2) with respect to x,

yields,
Y'(x) = y'(x) + '(x)
The necessary condition for a minimum, the vanishing of the first
derivate of I with respect to  , must hold for  equal to cero, that
is:

(3)

where,

(4)
 FUNCTIONAL

Differentiating (4) with respect to  , yields:

Substituting the derivatives of (2) and (3) and setting the result to
zero at = 0, yields,

Since we are considering  = 0, thus Y = y,

 EULER-LAGRANGE EQUATION

Given the assumption that y(x) is C2 continuous, the second term

of the integrand of (8) can be integrated using integration by parts:

recall is zero at endpoints

 EULER-LAGRANGE EQUATION

Since is an arbitrary function, this forces the integrand within the

brackets to equal zero:

Basic lemma: If x1 and x2 (> x1) are fixed constants and G(x) is a particular
continuous function for x1 <= x <= x2 and if
x2

 ( x)G( x)dx = 0
x1

for every choice of the continously differentiable function η(x) for which
 ( x1) =  ( x 2) = 0

we conclude that G(x)=0

 HAMILTON PRINCIPLE

A particle travels by the path between two points that minimizes

the action. We need to know what the “action” is. For one
dimensional motion. The action is

tb
S  path =  L( x, x' , t )dt
ta

L is known like as the Lagrangian and is given by:

L= KINETIC ENERGY-POTENTIAL ENERGY= T-V

PRINCIPLE OF LEAST ACTION

Pendulum composed of an objet of mass m and a massless string of

constant length l in a constant gravitational field with acceleration g.

Velocity ld
v=
dt

Height
l − l cos

Potential energy mg (l − l cos )

Kinetic energy  d 
2
1
ml 2  
2  dt 
PRINCIPLE OF LEAST ACTION
 d 
2
1
F = ml 2   − mg (l − l cos )
2  dt 

F d  F 
Euler equation −  =0
 dt   ' 

d  2 d 
− mgl sin  −  ml =0
dt  dt 

d 2 g
Pendulum equation 2
+ sin  = 0
dt l
GEODESICS

The Euler-Lagrange equation can also be solved to find the

geodesics on the surface of a unit sphere. The metric of the
sphere is

The goal is to minimize:

GEODESICS

The Euler-Lagrange equation becomes:

which can be rewritten:

d  F  F
Integrating this gives:
  −
d '  

Algebra yields:


GEODESICS

Therefore:

To solve this integral, first rewrite the denominator:

Note that is the derivate of and make the change of variables:

 GEODESICS

Then the integral becomes:

Expanding and perform algebra:

GEODESICS

Recall that in Cartesian coordinates, and .

Therefore:
GEODESICS
 SPECIAL CASE

A) A particularly simple Euler-Lagrange equation results if the

integrand function F is explicitly independent of the dependent
variable y. For then we have that:

F d  F 
−  =0 Euler-Lagrange Equation
y dx  y' 

d  F 
 =0 y independency
 dx  dy' 

F
= cte Integral
 y'
 SPECIAL CASE

B) Independency of x

F d  F 
−  =0 Euler-Lagrange Equation
y dx  y' 


F F dF F F
dF = dy + dy' = y'+ y''
y y' dx y y'

Integral
 
 GEODESICS

Show that the geodesic on a circular cylinder is a helix.

ds2 = (dx) 2 + (dy) 2 + (dz) 2

Length between two points in space
ds = (dx) 2 + (dy) 2 + (dz) 2
x = r * cos
y = r * sen Parametric equations for cylinder
z=z

dx = −rsend
 dy = r cosd Differentials
dz = dz


 GEODESICS

Substituting the differentials

dz
z' = Taking out fi
d

 Function
GEODESICS

Lagrange equation takes the form

F doesn't depend on z so

Therefore, the function must be a cte

Geodesics

Finally getting z

z = cte1+ cte


References

Coblenz, et al. Analytical and Numerical Solutions.

(19/May/2007). 43p. Recuperado el (19/03/2011)
dehttp://severian.mit.edu/philten/math/geodesics.pdf

Weinstock, R. (1974). Calculus of Variations. New York: Dover

Publocations, Inc.

Martinez, Armando. (18 de marzo de 2009). La ruta geodésica

I, II, III. Recuperado el (20 de marzo de 2011) de http://teoria-
de-la-relatividad.blogspot.com/2009/04/24-la-ruta-
geodesica.html