Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2019 Paper 1 1 e Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
The ellipse bounding the surface is . With the upward normal, its positively oriented boundary is traversed by increasing from zero to :The given components are Cartesian components, so their ordinary dot product with this tangent isTherefore Stokes theorem givesA direct check uses and , hence , and multiplies by the ellipse area . The third component cannot affect either calculation because the surface and its boundary lie at fixed . Equivalently one may apply Stokes to the smooth planar field , avoiding any need to differentiate the elliptic-coordinate expression for the third component at its foci.
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 by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
For , eliminating givesThus constant surfaces are confocal elliptic cylinders parallel to the axis. The limiting surface is the vertical strip , .
For generic , eliminating givesThese 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.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2019 Paper 1 1 c Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
Differentiate the position vector, keeping the other coordinates fixed in each derivative:The first two have zero dot product, since their two planar contributions cancel, and both are orthogonal to . Hence these are orthogonal coordinates away from coordinate degeneracies. Their scale factors, which are the lengths of these coordinate basis vectors, areFor example . The unit basis vectors are when ; the given coordinate basis vectors themselves are not normalized. The Jacobian determinant is except on the focal lines. These are elliptic cylindrical coordinates.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2019 Paper 1 1 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
For an oriented piecewise smooth surface with boundary curve , and a continuously differentiable vector field near , Stokes theorem statesHere is the chosen unit normal, is positive surface area, and is the directed tangent line element. The positive traversal of is fixed by the right-hand rule relative to . Thus the flux of the curl through the surface equals the circulation along its oriented boundary.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2019 Paper 1 1 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
Use the Levi-Civita symbol and the contraction of two Levi-Civita symbols in Cartesian coordinates. With repeated indices summed,The last line is the product rule. Reading its four terms in vector notation proves the curl of a cross product identity:
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2018 Paper 2 9 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
The two diagonal generators are independent involutions, soIt is a Klein four-group. Write the swapping generator as . Then , so has order two. Moreover,Thus normalizes . The setis a group: its products reduce usingand inverses reduce in the same way. It contains both generating subgroups, so minimality gives ; conversely every displayed product is in , giving .
There are four diagonal matrices and four off-diagonal matrices , all distinct. ConsequentlyAlso , since is not diagonal, and every element of has the form . This proves condition (I), hence the exact factorization of a group. Here is a normal subgroup and is a semidirect product. Its matrices are the two-dimensional signed permutation matrices, also realizing the dihedral group of the square.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2018 Paper 2 9 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
Assume (I). Existence of a decomposition is part of the hypothesis. If are two decompositions, multiply on the left by and on the right by to obtainThe left side belongs to and the right side to , since they are subgroups. Their common value belongs to , so and . This proves uniqueness, hence (II).
Conversely, assume (II). Existence immediately gives . If , thenare two allowed factorizations, because the identity is in each subgroup. Uniqueness makes their first components equal, so . Thus and (I) follows.
Therefore (I) and (II) are equivalent. This is an exact factorization of a group. For finite groups it gives , but it does not by itself identify with a direct product of groups; multiplication between the two factors can be noncommutative.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2018 Paper 2 8 c Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
The hypothesis implies for every , including the identity, so . For arbitrary , their product also equals its own inverse. The inverse-of-a-product rule therefore givesThus is an abelian group. Finiteness is not needed for this implication; it holds for every group in which each element squares to the identity.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2018 Paper 2 8 b Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
The two products are conjugate:Conjugation by is a group automorphism, so part (a) provesDirectly, cancellation gives for every positive integer . Thus a power of one product is the identity exactly when the same power of the other is the identity. This proves that conjugation preserves element order, even without the finiteness assumption.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2018 Paper 2 8 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
Let , which is finite. A group homomorphism preserves powers and the identity, soIf , divide by : with . Then , and minimality of forces . ThusIf is a group isomorphism, apply the same argument to its inverse: . The two inequalities yield
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2018 Paper 2 7 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
Choose generalized coordinates measured from a static equilibrium point, and assume a conservative system with no velocity-dependent forces. Keeping terms of degree two in displacements and velocities gives the small oscillation LagrangianHere is the positive-definite symmetric mass matrix evaluated at equilibrium, and is the symmetric Hessian matrix of the potential energy there. The linear potential term is zero by equilibrium, and an additive constant has been dropped. Coordinate-dependent corrections to the kinetic matrix contribute only at higher order.
The Euler-Lagrange equations are . For a normal mode , they give the generalized eigenvalue problem . A nonzero mode shape exists exactly whenThis is a degree- polynomial in . At a stable equilibrium its roots are nonnegative; zero roots correspond to zero modes.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2018 Paper 2 6 a Solution by
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Split the Cartesian second-rank tensor into symmetric and antisymmetric parts:Define . The symmetric part contributes zero to this contraction. The epsilon-delta identity then givesThereforeThe symmetric part and the three independent antisymmetric components determine these quantities uniquely. Under proper rotations is a vector; under reflections it is an axial vector.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2018 Paper 2 5 e Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-18
For the critically damped case, causality reduces the convolution toAlthough the forcing is not integrable on the full real line, this integral converges absolutely because the Green's function is integrable. Thus the calculation is valid directly; the corresponding Fourier transform can be interpreted as a tempered distribution.
Use the complex exponential and for :Since , the convolution response isThis is the bounded steady response to the stated forcing acting for all time. Without an initial condition or the convolution selection, the general solution additionally contains . No switch-on at was specified, so zero initial displacement and velocity should not be imposed on this all-time forcing.
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