Past exam of the short options course of the University of Oxford / 2017 / 6 / b / iv

For $y=\pm \sqrt{2/\pi }\sin x$, both the constraint and endpoint values hold, the extremal equation has $\lambda =1$, and direct integration gives $J[y]=1$.

For any admissible function, its derivative has Fourier cosine series coefficients $n{a}_n$ and zero constant coefficient. This follows by integration by parts: ${\int }_0^{\pi }{y}^{\prime }\cos (nx)dx=n{\int }_0^{\pi }y\sin (nx)dx$, and ${\int }_0^{\pi }{y}^{\prime }=0$. Thus the Parseval identity givesFor finite sums the same identity follows directly from the cosine product formula in the hint; the $L^2$ identity justifies the general case. Equality holds only if $a_n=0$ for all $n\ge 2$, and normalization then fixes $a_1=\pm \sqrt{2/\pi }$. ThereforeThis is the minimum Dirichlet energy at fixed L2 norm on an interval, equivalently the sharp Wirtinger inequality for this interval.