Introduction To The Calculus of Variations And Its Applications

An introductory text to the calculus of variations for mathematics students. Following coverage of basic terminology and the underlying theory, it discusses necessary and sufficient conditions. Examples and exercises are included.
This comprehensive text provides all information necessary for an introductory course on the calculus of variations and optimal control theory. Following a thorough discussion of the basic problem, including sufficient conditions for optimality, the theory and techniques are extended to problems with a free end point, a free boundary, auxiliary and inequality constraints, leading to a study of optimal control theory.