Past exam of the fixed point methods for nonlinear partial differential equations course of the University of Oxford / 2008 / 4 / c / Solution

The noncontact set $D=\{x\in (0,l):u(x)>g(x)\}$ is open. For $\phi \in C_0^{\infty }(D)$, the positive gap above the obstacle has a positive minimum on the support of $\phi$. Thus both $u+t\phi$ and $u-t\phi$ are admissible for sufficiently small $t>0$. Applying the variational inequality to both signs yieldsHence the Euler-Lagrange equation on the noncontact set isIt holds classically under the assumed smoothness. On the contact set the obstacle prevents the negative variations used to obtain this equality, so a variational inequality remains the appropriate global description.