Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/ia/paper-3/9a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2015 ia Paper 3 9A Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
In cylindrical coordinates, and . The chain rule gives and . ThereforeThis is cylindrically radial divergence, valid for .
The bounded domain is outside the unit cylinder, below the inverse-square surface and above the lower plane:The upper plane touches only the rim ; it is not an extra positive-area top face. Revolving the shaded meridional region below around the axis gives the three-dimensional domain.
With the Jacobian determinant of cylindrical coordinates,Zero divergence gives , hence the most general solution on the positive radial interval isAlthough this vector field is singular on the axis if , the entire closure of lies at , so it is smooth on a neighbourhood of and the divergence theorem applies.
Its volume integral of divergence is zero. Compute the outward surface integral directly. On the inner cylinder, , , and the flux is . On the curved roof , the outward vector surface element of a graph isTherefore its flux isThe horizontal bottom has zero flux and the top rim has zero surface area. Summing giveswhich verifies the divergence theorem with every boundary contribution accounted for.
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