Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Soap films help to solve mathematical problems

Soap films help to solve mathematical problems: "'With the aid of soap films we have solved variational mathematical problems, which appear in the formulation of many physical problems', explains Carlos Criado, professor at the University of M�laga, speaking to SINC. Together with his colleague Nieves �lamo, he has just published his work in the American Journal of Physics.
Soap films always adopt the shape which minimises their elastic energy, and therefore their area, so that they turn out to be ideal in the calculus of variations, 'where we look for a function that minimises a certain quantity (depending on the function)', adds the researcher."

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