Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 10 views

    1

    Uploaded by

    D
    The document presents the Euler-Lagrange condition for determining extremals of a differentiable functional. It states that for functionals defined by equation 1.5, a function qe(t) is an extremal if it satisfies equation 1.12. This is proven using the Euler-Lagrange condition and a lemma stating that if a function f(t) satisfies equation 1.14 for any function h(t) with the given constraints, then f(t) is equal to 0. As an example application, it shows that a straight line is the shortest path between two points in R2.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    1

    Uploaded by

    D
    10 views2 pages
    The document presents the Euler-Lagrange condition for determining extremals of a differentiable functional. It states that for functionals defined by equation 1.5, a function qe(t) is an extremal if it satisfies equation 1.12. This is proven using the Euler-Lagrange condition and a lemma stating that if a function f(t) satisfies equation 1.14 for any function h(t) with the given constraints, then f(t) is equal to 0. As an example application, it shows that a straight line is the shortest path between two points in R2.

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    TXT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The document presents the Euler-Lagrange condition for determining extremals of a differentiable functional. It states that for functionals defined by equation 1.5, a function qe(t) is an extremal if it satisfies equation 1.12. This is proven using the Euler-Lagrange condition and a lemma stating that if a function f(t) satisfies equation 1.14 for any function h(t) with the given constraints, then f(t) is equal to 0. As an example application, it shows that a straight line is the shortest path between two points in R2.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as txt, pdf, or txt
    10 views2 pages

    1

    Uploaded by

    D
    The document presents the Euler-Lagrange condition for determining extremals of a differentiable functional. It states that for functionals defined by equation 1.5, a function qe(t) is an extremal if it satisfies equation 1.12. This is proven using the Euler-Lagrange condition and a lemma stating that if a function f(t) satisfies equation 1.14 for any function h(t) with the given constraints, then f(t) is equal to 0. As an example application, it shows that a straight line is the shortest path between two points in R2.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as txt, pdf, or txt
    of 2

    We now consider the question for which functions the functionals of the type (1.

    5)
    assume extreme
    values. For this purpose we define
    Definition: An extremal of a differentiable functional S[ ] is a function qe(t)
    with the property
    δS[~qe(t), δ~q(t)] = 0 for all δ~q(t) ∈ F#. (1.11)
    The extremals ~qe(t) can be identified through a condition which provides a
    suitable differential
    equation for this purpose. This condition is stated in the following theorem.
    Theorem: Euler–Lagrange Condition
    For the functional defined through (1.5), it holds in case δ~q(t0) = δ~q(t1) = 0
    that ~qe(t) is an
    extremal, if and only if it satisfies the conditions (j = 1, 2, . . . , M)
    d
    dt #
    ∂L
    ∂q˙j
    #
    −
    ∂L
    ∂qj
    = 0 (1.12)
    The proof of this theorem is based on the property
    Lemma: If for a continuous function f(t)
    f : [t0, t1] ⊂ R → R (1.13)
    holds
    Z t1
    t0
    dt f(t)h(t) = 0 (1.14)
    for any continuous function h(t) ∈ F# with h(t0) = h(t1) = 0, then
    f(t) ≡ 0 on [t0, t1]. (1.15)
    We will not provide a proof for this Lemma.
    The proof of the above theorem starts from (1.6) which reads in the present case
    δS[~q(t), δ~q(t)] = Z t1
    t0
    dt



    X
    M
    j=1
    #
    ∂L
    ∂qj
    −
    d
    dt #
    ∂L
    ∂q˙j
    ## δqj (t)



    . (1.16)
    This property holds for any δqj with δ~q(t) ∈ F#. According to the Lemma above
    follows then (1.12)
    for j = 1, 2, . . . M. On the other side, from (1.12) for j = 1, 2, . . . M and δqj
    (t0) = δqj (t1) = 0
    follows according to (1.16) the property δS[~qe(t), · ] ≡ 0 and, hence, the above
    theorem.
    An Example
    As an application of the above rules of the variational calculus we like to prove
    the well-known result
    that a straight line in R
    2
    is the shortest connection (geodesics) between two points (x1, y1) and
    (x2, y2). Let us assume that the two points are connected by the path y(x), y(x1) =
    y1, y(x2) = y2.
    The length of such path can be determined starting from the fact that the
    incremental length ds
    in going from point (x, y(x)) to (x + dx, y(x + dx)) is
    ds =
    r
    (dx)
    2 + ( dy
    dxdx)
    2 = dxr
    1 + ( dy
    dx)
    2 .

    You might also like