Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2004/paper-1/8/iii/solution

Direct differentiation gives with , so is a conservative vector field and its integral depends only on the endpoints. In contrast,
is nonzero, for example at . Thus is not conservative. Both earlier paths lie in the surface , where the two fields happen to coincide. This illustrates why coinciding path integrals need not imply a conservative field.

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