calculus of variations

Noun

the calculus of variations (uncountable)

1. The form of calculus that deals with the maxima and minima of definite integrals of functions of many variables.
   • The next advance was made by Cauchy in a memoir on the calculus of variations published in the third volume of his Exercices d'analyse et de Physique Mathématique, 1844, extending from page 50 to page 130.1885, Lewis Buffett Carll, A Treatise on the Calculus of Variations, Macmillan and Co., page 550
   • In the nineteenth century and in parallel to some of the work that was mentioned above, probably, the most celebrated problem of the calculus of variations emerged, namely the study of the Dirichlet integral; a problem of multiple integrals.2004, Bernard Dacorogna, Introduction to the Calculus of Variations, 2nd Edition, Imperial College Press, page 2