Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2001/iii/paper-50/4/a/solution

Write , with . Under the Cole-Hopf transformation , direct differentiation gives
Since , Burgers' equation is equivalent to
The ratio is therefore a function alone. Multiplying by leaves unchanged and removes this scalar freedom. Thus one may choose the normalization for which
This is the heat equation. The positive sign in corresponds to the negative conservative flux used here; the more usual positive-flux convention has the opposite sign.

New to topics? Read the docs here!