I'm trying to find the soltution of the brachistochrone problem. I'm was wondering if there is a way to solve it directly using Mathematica. The problem is the following: [![enter image description here][1]][1] I have to find the equation y(x) that minimizes the functional J[t]. This functional(y(x)) is the path of minimum time that a body will perform from a point y1 to a point y2. To achieve that, it is needed to use the Euler equation: [![enter image description here][2]][2] where [![enter image description here][3]][3] The code below is the solution of the Euler equation that i was trying to integrate without sucess. Integrate[(-1 - y'[x]^2 - 2 y[x] y''[x])/( 2 y[x]^(3/2) (1 + y'[x]^2)^(3/2)), {y[x], 0, 1}] This code returns: Integral of (-1-(y^\[Prime])[x]^2-2 Integrate`$$a$201005 (y^\[Prime]\[Prime])[x])/Integrate`$$a$201005^(3/2) does not converge on {0,1}. >> Thanks in advance! [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/fhbwp.png [2]: https://i.sstatic.net/NZcLU.png [3]: https://i.sstatic.net/hDE47.png