Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2008/paper-1/2/c/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2008 Paper 1 2 c Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
Each spatial eigenfunction acquires the temporal factor under the heat equation. Expanding the initial constant using the preceding coefficients gives the cooling of an initially uniform square:For the exponential factors justify differentiating the series and enforce the zero boundary temperature. As , it tends to at every interior point and in L2 space; the instantaneous boundary cooling is incompatible with continuity at the initial boundary corners, which is expected for this idealization.
The slowest decaying nonzero mode is , givingat each fixed interior point when . The next contributing modes have and decay as , making the leading-mode approximation exponentially accurate.
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