Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2020/ii/paper-4/38b/iii/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 4 38B iii Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
If the lower density exceeds the upper density , stable density stratification adds a gravitational restoring term. Including surface tension , the same calculation has the schematic dispersion relationThe gravity term dominates the shear term as and therefore suppresses sufficiently long waves. The capillary term dominates as and suppresses sufficiently short waves. Together they reduce the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability growth rate and can leave only a finite unstable band, or eliminate instability if the restoring effects are strong enough.
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