Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2016/paper-2/18/c/iii/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2016 Paper 2 18 c iii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
Not as ordinary convergent Fourier series, for a nontrivial moving ramp. Formal spatial differentiation would giveand formal time differentiation multiplies that expression by . The summands have nondecaying amplitude and do not tend to zero, so the ordinary series cannot converge. The periodic extension has jumps, violating the regularity needed for Termwise differentiation of a Fourier series.
Away from the moving jumps, the classical derivatives exist and are and . A distributional derivative also includes the Dirac delta distribution contributions at the jumps, so distributional differentiation is possible, but it is a different interpretation. If , the time derivative is trivially zero; if , both derivatives are zero.
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