Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2017 / Paper 1 / 9 / a

Define $h=f-y^{\prime }{f}_{y^{\prime }}$. For a density without explicit $x$ dependence, the chain rule givesThus the Euler-Lagrange equation implies the Beltrami identityWhere $y^{\prime }\ne 0$ this first integral is equivalent to the original equation. At a turning point it extends by continuity. On an entire constant segment, however, its derivative alone can vanish without imposing the full Euler-Lagrange equation, so such candidate paths must still be checked in the original equation.