Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-b-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/paper-1/section-a/a3/solution

For linear elasticity of an isotropic material, the isotropic elastic modulus relation gives
The printed Young's modulus is , and the printed Poisson's ratio is . Formal substitution gives
With compressive pressure positive, the linear volume response is . Thus a thirty per cent reduction formally requires
Here . The negative pressure is a formal tensile load, not the requested positive isotropic compression.
The original PDF really prints . It is incompatible with a stable ordinary isotropic elastic solid: positive bulk modulus and shear modulus require . Consequently there is no physically admissible positive-pressure answer with the stated constants. If was intended, the corresponding linear estimates would instead be
That is an explicit alternative, not a correction established by the source. A thirty per cent volume strain is also outside a controlled small-strain approximation; accurate rubber behaviour at that deformation needs a finite-strain constitutive law. The initial volume cancels because the specified change is a fractional one.

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