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In calculus of variations, the Euler–Lagrange equation, Euler's equation, or Lagrange's equation (although the latter name is ambiguous—see disambiguation page), is a second-order partial differential equation whose solutions are the functions for which a given functional is stationary. It was developed by Swiss-Russian mathematician Leonhard Euler and French-Italian mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange in the 1750s. Because a differentiable functional is stationary at its local maxima and minima, the Euler–Lagrange equation is useful for solving optimization problems in which, given some functional, one seeks the function minimizing (or maximizing) it. This is analogous to Fermat's theorem in calculus, stating that at any point where a differentiable function attains a local extremum, its derivative is zero. In Lagrangian mechanics, because of Hamilton's principle of stationary action, the evolution of a physical system is described by the solutions to the Euler–Lagrange equation for the action of the system. In classical mechanics, it is equivalent to Newton's laws of motion, but it has the advantage that it takes the same form in any system of generalized coordinates, and it is better suited to generalizations. In classical field theory there is an analogous equation to calculate the dynamics of a field. ==History== The Euler–Lagrange equation was developed in the 1750s by Euler and Lagrange in connection with their studies of the tautochrone problem. This is the problem of determining a curve on which a weighted particle will fall to a fixed point in a fixed amount of time, independent of the starting point. Lagrange solved this problem in 1755 and sent the solution to Euler. Both further developed Lagrange's method and applied it to mechanics, which led to the formulation of Lagrangian mechanics. Their correspondence ultimately led to the calculus of variations, a term coined by Euler himself in 1766.〔(A short biography of Lagrange )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Euler–Lagrange equation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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