Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2022/paper-2/19/a/solution

At a regular constrained extremum, every tangent vector to the level set gives zero directional derivative of . Thus is perpendicular to the tangent plane, and must be a scalar multiple of its nonzero normal vector . The Lagrange multiplier equations are
One solves these four equations for , evaluates at the candidates, and classifies or compares the values as required. Points where , and any boundary or limiting cases of the feasible domain, require separate checks because the regularity argument does not cover them.

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