Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2017/paper-2/19/a/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2017 Paper 2 19 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
As in the diagram, an inscribed cylinder rests on , is coaxial with the paraboloid, and has its top rim on the curved boundary. ThusAllowing contact with the boundary is the usual meaning of inscribed. Form the Lagrange multiplier functionAt a nondegenerate stationary cylinder, its two derivative equations areEliminating gives . The constraint then gives and , soThe degenerate endpoints or have zero volume, consistent with the positive stationary value being the maximum. If the strict inequalities defining the open interior were interpreted as forbidding boundary contact, the same value would instead be a supremum approached by smaller cylinders.
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