Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2023/prelims/mathematics-v/2/a/ii/solution

An orientation-preserving reparametrization has the form , where is an increasing, piecewise smooth change of parameter with , . For regular parametrizations one may take and its inverse continuously differentiable on each piece. The chain rule gives . The change of variables therefore yields
This proves reparametrization invariance of a vector line integral. If is decreasing, the endpoints in the final integral are reversed and the sign changes. Thus the same direction and the same multiplicity of traversal are essential.

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