The Brachistochrone Problem

The Brachistochrone (brachistos (greek): short, chronos (greek): time) is

the shape of the curve which connects two points on which a ball (a mass
point) will require minimal time to get from point A to point B under the
assumption of zero friction. Johann Bernoulli solved the problem in 1696.
The Brachistochrone problem is a function optimization problem (we are
looking for a curve or a trajectory) that directly leads to the Variational
Calculus. Let point A have the coordinates (x
A
, y
A
) and point B (x
B
, y
B
),
the times when the ball passes points A and B are t
A
, t
B
. We can write for
the total time required (denoting the balls speed by v):
T =
_
t
B
t
A
dt =
1
v
ds. (8)
Furthermore, conservation of energy (E
kin
= E
pot
) leads to v =
_
2gy(x). At
the same time, the tangential step ds is given by ds
2
= dx
2
+ dy
2
. Thus, we
can write
T =
_
x
B
x
A
1
_
2gy(x)

_
1 +
_
dy
dx
_
2
dx
!
= min. (9)
Variational Calculus
We assume that y(x) is a function of x and seek the extremum of the func-
tional
I(y) =
_
x
1
x
0
f
_
x, y,
dy
dx
_
dx =
_
x
1
x
0
f (x, y, y

) dx (10)
Now we assume that y
0
(x) is an extremum of I(y), thus I = 0 and introduce
the function y

(x) = y
0
(x) + h(x), where the function h(x) satises the
following conditions h(x
0
) = h(x
1
) = 0.
I(y

) = F() =
_
x
1
x
0
f
_
x, y

,
dy

dx
_
dx (11)
Since we assumed that y
0
(x) is an extremum of I(y), we know that
I =
_
dF
d
_
=0
= F

( = 0) = 0. (12)
3
Therefore, we can write
F

() =
_
x
1
x
0
df
d
dx =
_
x
1
x
0
_
f
y

+
f
y

_
dx
=
_
x
1
x
0
_
f
y

h(x) +
f
y

(x)
_
dx. (13)
Partial integration (
_
uv

dx = uv
_
u

v) of the second term of the integrand

and the boundary condition for h(x) lead to
F

() =
_
x
1
x
0
_
f
y

h(x)
d
dx
_
f
y

_
h(x)
_
dx

( = 0) =
_
x
1
x
0
_
f
y
0
h(x)
d
dx
_
f
y

0
_
h(x)
_
dx
!
= 0 (14)
Since equation (14) has to be fullled for any h(x), we obtain the Euler-
Lagrange dierential equation that has to be fullled in order that y
0
(x) is
an extremum of the functional I(y):
f
y

d
dx
_
_
f
_
y
x
_
_
_
= 0. (15)
4