A short introduction is given of direct variational methods and its relation to Galerkin and moment methods, all flexible and powerful approaches for finding approximate solutions of difficult physical equations. A pedagogical application of moment methods is given to the physically and technically important Child–Langmuir law in electron physics. The analysis is shown to provide simple, yet accurate, approximate solutions of the two-dimensional problem (a problem which does not allow an exact analytical solution) and illustrates the usefulness and the power of moment methods.

Direct variational methods are used to find simple approximate solutions of the Thomas–Fermi equations describing the properties of self-gravitating radially symmetric stellar objects both in the non-relativistic and ultra-relativistic cases. The approximate solutions are compared and shown to be in good agreement with exact and numerically obtained solutions.