Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2018/paper-2/20/a/i/solution

The chain rule for the new coordinates gives and . Since the coordinates depend linearly on , their coefficients are constant. Expanding the squares of these differential operators gives
Hence the partial differential equation becomes . Integrating once in each variable introduces independent one-variable functions, giving the general solution
where are arbitrary twice-differentiable functions on the relevant characteristic intervals. Their sum includes an arbitrary additive constant.

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