I.M. Gelfand, S.V. Fomin ; translated and edited by Richard A. Silverman.
Mineola, N.Y. :
Dover Publications,
2000.
vii, 232 pages :
illustrations ;
22 cm
Originally published: Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice-Hall, 1963.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Based on a series of lectures given by I. M. Gelfand at Moscow State University, this book actually goes considerably beyond the material presented in the lectures. The aim is to give a treatment of the elements of the calculus of variations in a form both easily understandable and sufficiently modern. Considerable attention is devoted to physical applications of variational methods, e.g., canonical equations, variational principles of mechanics, and conservation laws.