Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2014/ia/paper-2/1b/solution

With , the chain rule gives . Since ,
Substituting into the ordinary differential equation and multiplying by leaves , the harmonic oscillator equation. Its two independent real solutions are and . Undoing the change of variables gives
The constants are arbitrary real numbers. The reciprocal-coordinate reduction of a beam-type equation works on the entire positive half-line, where the coordinate transformation is invertible.

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