This approach is motivated by variational principles and the physics of surfaces, which dictate that a constrained surface will assume the shape which minimizes the total energy of deformation (analogous to a soap bubble). Expressing the energy of a surface in terms of its local deformation (the energy is due to a combination of stretching and bending), the local force on the surface is given by differentiating the energy with respect to position, yielding an equation of motion which can be solved in the standard ways.