calculus of variations

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun Mathematical analysis of the maxima and minima of definite integrals, the integrands of which are functions of independent variables, dependent variables, and the derivatives of one or more dependent variables.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun calculus The form of calculus that deals with the maxima and minima of definite integrals of functions of many variables

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the calculus of maxima and minima of definite integrals