Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2025/paper-2/16/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2025 Paper 2 16 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
Put and . All vector fields and their spatial partial derivatives below are evaluated at . The product rule for a dot product givesBecause the vector field has no explicit time dependence, the multivariable chain rule gives , where the Jacobian matrix has entries . ConsequentlyThe first term measures the change of the curl sampled as the point moves; the second measures the change in the velocity vector used in the dot product.
To give the result explicitly in , define the directional derivative operator . Sincethe same expression isFor example ; the other two terms expand in the same way. Thus only the first and second spatial partial derivatives of , together with the velocity and acceleration of the parametric curve, occur.
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