Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2017/paper-2/20/a/i/solution

For the solution through , work on the connected domain . While , separation of variables gives
The initial condition gives , so
The restriction matters: the unsquared equation requires . The solution reaches zero at . Continuing the squared formula beyond that point would give a positive derivative, contradicting the original negative square-root right-hand side.
The nonnegative forward continuation is instead
The two pieces join with , and both satisfy the original equation. Because the right-hand side is nonpositive for , a nonnegative solution cannot leave zero in the forward direction. This is a finite-time extinction phenomenon for a separable differential equation.

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