Paper 2, Section II, C

Variational Principles | Part IB, 2014

Write down the Euler-Lagrange equation for the integral

f(y,y,x)dx\int f\left(y, y^{\prime}, x\right) d x

An ant is walking on the surface of a sphere, which is parameterised by θ[0,π](\theta \in[0, \pi]( angle from top of sphere) and ϕ[0,2π\phi \in[0,2 \pi ) (azimuthal angle). The sphere is sticky towards the top and the bottom and so the ant's speed is proportional to sinθ\sin \theta. Show that the ant's fastest route between two points will be of the form

sinh(Aϕ+B)=cotθ\sinh (A \phi+B)=\cot \theta

for some constants AA and BB. [A,B[A, B need not be determined.]

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