On Tuesday, April 1, the department welcomed alumnus Dr. Christopher Catone ’96, who gave a talk on “The Calculus of Variations & the Most Important Equation Our Students Never Learn”
Abstract: The Calculus of Variations is the study of finding extremals of functionals. Usually these functionals take the form J(y(x))=\int_{x_1}^{x_2} f(x,y,y’) dx. This talk will discuss some examples which yield exactly this situation, some of which are the very problems that led to the development of our topic. We will derive the Euler-Lagrange equation and use it to solve these examples. This talk is aimed at students; only a basic knowledge of Calculus is necessary to delve into this subject.Dr.
Christopher Catone is a TCNJ alum who received his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is currently an Associate Professor at Albright College.