Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-year-2-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2021/paper-1/10/d/i/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2021 Paper 1 10 d i Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
For the added trial term , the left Dirichlet boundary condition is automatic for a positive integer . At the right endpoint,To preserve for an arbitrary variational coefficient , choose . Then minimize the Rayleigh quotient of over .
Since remains available, this optimization cannot worsen the original upper bound. For , the added function is a multiple of the first trial, so the quotient does not change: an independent choice is needed for extra freedom. More generally, several such functions form the exponential-polynomial trial space for a mixed Sturm-Liouville problem, and the Rayleigh-Ritz method reduces minimization to a small generalized eigenvalue problem.
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