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First variation

Mathematical theory

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
1 min read
Source updated March 6, 2026

In applied mathematics and the calculus of variations, the first variation of a functional J(y) is defined as the linear functional \delta J(y) mapping the function h to

\delta J(y,h)=\lim _{\varepsilon \to 0}{\frac {J(y+\varepsilon h)-J(y)}{\varepsilon }}=\left.{\frac {\mathrm {d} }{\mathrm {d} \varepsilon }}J(y+\varepsilon h)\right|_{\varepsilon =0},

where y and h are functions, and ε is a scalar. This is recognizable as the Gateaux derivative of the functional.

01Example

Compute the first variation of

J(y)=\int _{a}^{b}yy'\mathrm {d} x.

From the definition above:

{\begin{aligned}\delta J(y,h)&=\left.{\frac {\mathrm {d} }{\mathrm {d} \varepsilon }}J(y+\varepsilon h)\right|_{\varepsilon =0}\\&=\left.{\frac {\mathrm {d} }{\mathrm {d} \varepsilon }}\int _{a}^{b}(y+\varepsilon h)(y^{\prime }+\varepsilon h^{\prime })\ \mathrm {d} x\right|_{\varepsilon =0}\\&=\left.{\frac {\mathrm {d} }{\mathrm {d} \varepsilon }}\int _{a}^{b}(yy^{\prime }+y\varepsilon h^{\prime }+y^{\prime }\varepsilon h+\varepsilon ^{2}hh^{\prime })\ \mathrm {d} x\right|_{\varepsilon =0}\\&=\left.\int _{a}^{b}{\frac {\mathrm {d} }{\mathrm {d} \varepsilon }}(yy^{\prime }+y\varepsilon h^{\prime }+y^{\prime }\varepsilon h+\varepsilon ^{2}hh^{\prime })\ \mathrm {d} x\right|_{\varepsilon =0}\\&=\left.\int _{a}^{b}(yh^{\prime }+y^{\prime }h+2\varepsilon hh^{\prime })\ \mathrm {d} x\right|_{\varepsilon =0}\\&=\int _{a}^{b}(yh^{\prime }+y^{\prime }h)\ \mathrm {d} x\\\end{aligned}}
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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “First variation”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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Related topics

Calculus of variations

The calculus of variations is a field of mathematical analysis that uses variations, which are small changes in functions and functionals, to find maxima and minima of functionals: mappings from a set of functions to the real numbers. Functionals are often expressed as definite integrals involving functions and their derivatives.

Functional derivative

In the calculus of variations, a field of mathematical analysis, the functional derivative relates a change in a functional (a functional in this sense is a function that acts on functions) to a change in a function on which the functional depends. In the calculus of variations, functionals are usually expressed in terms of an integral of functions, their arguments, and their derivatives.

Second variation

In the calculus of variations, the second variation extends the idea of the second derivative test to functionals. Much like for functions, at a stationary point where the first derivative is zero, the second derivative determines the nature of the stationary point; it may be negative, positive (if a minimum) or zero (if a saddle point).