Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/paper-1/1/d/solution

For , eliminating gives
Thus constant surfaces are confocal elliptic cylinders parallel to the axis. The limiting surface is the vertical strip , .
For generic , eliminating gives
These are hyperbolic cylinders with the same focal lines. A specified angular value selects the half-branch with and , because . At the surfaces are the vertical half-planes , or ; at they are , or .
Finally, constant gives horizontal planes. The three surface families express the orthogonality of elliptic cylindrical coordinates.

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