A First Course in the Calculus of Variations PDF Download

Author: Mark Kot
Publisher: American Mathematical Society
ISBN: 1470414953
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
This book is intended for a first course in the calculus of variations, at the senior or beginning graduate level. The reader will learn methods for finding functions that maximize or minimize integrals. The text lays out important necessary and sufficient conditions for extrema in historical order, and it illustrates these conditions with numerous worked-out examples from mechanics, optics, geometry, and other fields. The exposition starts with simple integrals containing a single independent variable, a single dependent variable, and a single derivative, subject to weak variations, but steadily moves on to more advanced topics, including multivariate problems, constrained extrema, homogeneous problems, problems with variable endpoints, broken extremals, strong variations, and sufficiency conditions. Numerous line drawings clarify the mathematics. Each chapter ends with recommended readings that introduce the student to the relevant scientific literature and with exercises that consolidate understanding.

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781470419615
Category : MATHEMATICS
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description

Author: L.A. Pars
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486165957
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Clear, rigorous introductory treatment covers applications to geometry, dynamics, and physics. It focuses upon problems with one independent variable, connecting abstract theory with its use in concrete problems. 1962 edition.

Author: Mike Mesterton-Gibbons
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 0821847724
Category : Calculus of variations
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
The calculus of variations is used to find functions that optimize quantities expressed in terms of integrals. Optimal control theory seeks to find functions that minimize cost integrals for systems described by differential equations. This book is an introduction to both the classical theory of the calculus of variations and the more modern developments of optimal control theory from the perspective of an applied mathematician. It focuses on understanding concepts and how to apply them. The range of potential applications is broad: the calculus of variations and optimal control theory have been widely used in numerous ways in biology, criminology, economics, engineering, finance, management science, and physics. Applications described in this book include cancer chemotherapy, navigational control, and renewable resource harvesting. The prerequisites for the book are modest: the standard calculus sequence, a first course on ordinary differential equations, and some facility with the use of mathematical software. It is suitable for an undergraduate or beginning graduate course, or for self study. It provides excellent preparation for more advanced books and courses on the calculus of variations and optimal control theory.

Author: Charles R. MacCluer
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486278301
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
First truly up-to-date treatment offers a simple introduction to optimal control, linear-quadratic control design, and more. Broad perspective features numerous exercises, hints, outlines, and appendixes, including a practical discussion of MATLAB. 2005 edition.

Author: I. M. Gelfand
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486135012
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
Fresh, lively text serves as a modern introduction to the subject, with applications to the mechanics of systems with a finite number of degrees of freedom. Ideal for math and physics students.

Author: Bruce van Brunt
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387216979
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
Suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students of mathematics, physics, or engineering, this introduction to the calculus of variations focuses on variational problems involving one independent variable. It also discusses more advanced topics such as the inverse problem, eigenvalue problems, and Noether’s theorem. The text includes numerous examples along with problems to help students consolidate the material.

Author: Hans Sagan
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 048613802X
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
Provides a thorough understanding of calculus of variations and prepares readers for the study of modern optimal control theory. Selected variational problems and over 400 exercises. Bibliography. 1969 edition.

Author: Hansjörg Kielhöfer
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319711237
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 227

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Book Description
This clear and concise textbook provides a rigorous introduction to the calculus of variations, depending on functions of one variable and their first derivatives. It is based on a translation of a German edition of the book Variationsrechnung (Vieweg+Teubner Verlag, 2010), translated and updated by the author himself. Topics include: the Euler-Lagrange equation for one-dimensional variational problems, with and without constraints, as well as an introduction to the direct methods. The book targets students who have a solid background in calculus and linear algebra, not necessarily in functional analysis. Some advanced mathematical tools, possibly not familiar to the reader, are given along with proofs in the appendix. Numerous figures, advanced problems and proofs, examples, and exercises with solutions accompany the book, making it suitable for self-study. The book will be particularly useful for beginning graduate students from the physical, engineering, and mathematical sciences with a rigorous theoretical background.

Author: Mark Levi
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 0821891383
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
This is an intuitively motivated presentation of many topics in classical mechanics and related areas of control theory and calculus of variations. All topics throughout the book are treated with zero tolerance for unrevealing definitions and for proofs which leave the reader in the dark. Some areas of particular interest are: an extremely short derivation of the ellipticity of planetary orbits; a statement and an explanation of the "tennis racket paradox"; a heuristic explanation (and a rigorous treatment) of the gyroscopic effect; a revealing equivalence between the dynamics of a particle and statics of a spring; a short geometrical explanation of Pontryagin's Maximum Principle, and more. In the last chapter, aimed at more advanced readers, the Hamiltonian and the momentum are compared to forces in a certain static problem. This gives a palpable physical meaning to some seemingly abstract concepts and theorems. With minimal prerequisites consisting of basic calculus and basic undergraduate physics, this book is suitable for courses from an undergraduate to a beginning graduate level, and for a mixed audience of mathematics, physics and engineering students. Much of the enjoyment of the subject lies in solving almost 200 problems in this book.