Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-year-1-of-the-computer-science-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2021/discrete-mathematics-continuous-mathematics-and-probability/5/b/solution
Past exam of the year 1 of the computer science course of the University of Oxford 2021 Discrete mathematics, continuous mathematics, and probability 5 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
Complete the square to write the objective asLet and , so while feasibility requires . The reverse triangle inequality givesThe objective is therefore at least zero. Equality is attained by , which lies on the boundary. Equality requires the vectors to have the same direction and , so this minimizer is unique. HenceIt also satisfies the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker conditions with . The direct distance argument proves global optimality even though the exterior of a disk is not a convex set; this is nearest-point minimization outside a Euclidean ball.
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