Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2017/prelims/mathematics-iv-resit/3/c/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Oxford 2017 Prelims Mathematics IV resit 3 c Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
Use the polar radius as the parameter of the Archimedean spiral. Its angle in polar coordinates is . The radial and angular contributions to its arc length are orthogonal, soThere is no need to evaluate this integral. The simple bounds implyThe squeeze theorem therefore gives the scaled length of an Archimedean spiral:Geometrically, the radial contribution becomes negligible after multiplying the arc length by ; the remaining contribution is the area under the function graph on .
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