Abstract
Many problems in statistical mechanics require minimizing a free energy not just over one variable, or even several variables, but over a function. Variational calculus is the mathematical method for performing such minimizations. This chapter presents the mathematical technique of variational calculus, with examples in classical mechanics. In future chapters, this technique will be applied to the theory of soft materials.
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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
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Selinger, J.V. (2016). First Mathematical Interlude: Variational Calculus. In: Introduction to the Theory of Soft Matter. Soft and Biological Matter. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21054-4_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-21054-4_5
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Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-21053-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-21054-4
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