Plateau's problem

Part of a series of articles about
Calculus
${\displaystyle \int _{a}^{b}f'(t)\,dt=f(b)-f(a)}$
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Advanced Calculus on Euclidean space Generalized functions Limit of distributions
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Miscellaneous Precalculus History Glossary List of topics Integration Bee Mathematical analysis Nonstandard analysis
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In mathematics, Plateau's problem is to show the existence of a minimal surface with a given boundary, a problem raised by Joseph-Louis Lagrange in 1760. However, it is named after Joseph Plateau who experimented with soap films. The problem is considered part of the calculus of variations. The existence and regularity problems are part of geometric measure theory.