 Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2024/paper-1/9/b/solution

\int_{0}^{T} \frac{d}{d t} g (x, y) d t = g (x (T), y (T)) - g (x (0), y (0)) .

This is fixed by the endpoint data, so its first variation vanishes. It cannot change the Euler-Lagrange equations or which path minimizes

F

For a direct check, let

h = g_{x} \overset{x}{˙} + g_{y} \overset{y}{˙}

. Then

\frac{d}{d t} h_{\overset{x}{˙}} = g_{xx} \overset{x}{˙} + g_{x y} \overset{y}{˙} = h_{x}, \frac{d}{d t} h_{\overset{y}{˙}} = g_{y x} \overset{x}{˙} + g_{yy} \overset{y}{˙} = h_{y} .

d g / d t contributes zero to both Euler-Lagrange equations

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