Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/ia/paper-3/3c/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2016 ia Paper 3 3C Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-06
The chain rule along a smooth curve isDifferentiating the circular parametrization gives the tangent vectorThus the chain rule turns the angular derivative of into . The given partial differential equation makes this equal to , so along every portion of the circle inside the upper half-plane, satisfies the ordinary differential equation . Its solution is .
For the two specified points take . The initial point corresponds to and the terminal point to . The entire intervening arc lies in , so no continuation outside the domain is used. The requested value isThese circular characteristic curves also show locally that the general solution has the polar-coordinate form , with ; there is no requirement of angular periodicity on the upper half-plane.
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