Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2012/paper-1/1/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2012 Paper 1 1 Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
Using Cartesian coordinates, the Levi-Civita symbol and the Einstein summation convention, the constant-vector assumption givesRecognizing the divergence and directional derivative provesHere the contractions use the Kronecker delta.
For an oriented piecewise smooth surface with boundary , Stokes theorem stateswhere the orientations obey the right-hand rule and is continuously differentiable near . Apply it to . The scalar triple product givesThe last integrand is , as the component formulashows. Since is arbitrary, the cross-product form of Stokes theorem follows:The derivatives in the surface expression act on , not on the surface element.
For the specified square, the path is clockwise when viewed from positive , so the compatible unit normal is . On the first and fourth edges, and are parallel, giving zero cross product. On the second edge, and runs from to , so contributes . On the third edge, and runs from to , so the contribution is . Thus the line integral is .
For an independent surface integral, and for the position vector field. Its integrand is therefore . The square has unit area and downward orientation, giving
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