Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2025/paper-1/15/a/ii/solution

For and , put . This is the standard substitution for a homogeneous first-order differential equation. Since , the equation becomes
Taking antiderivatives yields . The explicit general solution is therefore
on any interval where and , with a fixed choice of sign. For a check that does not divide by , set to get and hence .
There is no missing zero solution: at with , the original equation would require . Also no real solution on an interval about can arise from this family, since becomes negative near .

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