Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-year-1-of-the-computer-science-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2018/discrete-mathematics-continuous-mathematics-and-probability/4/b/iv/solution
Past exam of the year 1 of the computer science course of the University of Oxford 2018 Discrete mathematics, continuous mathematics, and probability 4 b iv Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-31
Seek a periodic particular solution with Fourier coefficients . Comparing constant terms gives . Comparing the cosine and sine terms for givesso and . Insert the coefficients from part (a) and add the homogeneous solution:The differentiated series converges absolutely and uniformly, because its largest coefficient terms are . This justifies the term-by-term first derivative used in substituting into the differential equation. Any two solutions differ by , proving that the displayed family is the general solution. The computation is an instance of Fourier response of a first-order linear differential equation.
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