This text is geared toward advanced undergraduates and graduate students in mathematics who have some familiarity with multidimensional calculus and ordinary differential equations. Includes a substantial number of answers to selected problems. 1994 edition.
An introduction to the variational methods used to formulate and solve mathematical and physical problems, allowing the reader an insight into the systematic use of elementary (partial) convexity of differentiable functions in Euclidian space. By helping students directly characterize the solutions for many minimization problems, the text serves as a prelude to the field theory for sufficiency, laying as it does the groundwork for further explorations in mathematics, physics, mechanical and electrical engineering, as well as computer science.