Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2002/ib/paper-3/1e/solution

For , ordinary differentiation of the two smooth components gives
At zero, use the definition of the derivative in the Euclidean norm:
Thus has differentiability everywhere and . The two vectors and are orthogonal unit vectors, so the squared norm of the displayed derivative is . Consequently
This discontinuous derivative of a differentiable plane curve also shows why componentwise scalar mean value theorem conclusions do not supply a single intermediate point reproducing an entire vector-valued difference quotient.

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