Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ib Paper 3 16B Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
The expectation value is the mean outcome over many identically prepared measurements of the observable. For real , positivity of the norm in the Hilbert space givesThis real quadratic has nonpositive quadratic discriminant, soApply this to the centered observables and to obtain the Robertson uncertainty principle
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 109 3 ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
We establish small-set edge isoperimetry in a square grid directly by counting row and column transitions. Regard the vertices of the grid graph as . Put , so . Start with the corner square and add the vertices . In this shape every occupied row and column is a proper initial interval. There are occupied rows and occupied columns, each contributing exactly one edge to the edge boundary in a graph in its direction. This gives .
For the reverse bound take an arbitrary -vertex set , and let be its numbers of occupied rows and columns. A row or column that is occupied but not full has at least one transition between and its complement, hence at least one corresponding boundary edge.
Suppose first that no row and no column is full. Then and . If , the arithmetic-geometric mean inequality would givecontrary to the stipulated size. Thus .
If there is a full row but no full column, all columns are occupied and proper, giving at least vertical boundary edges. The case of a full column but no full row is identical with the directions exchanged.
It remains to consider a set with both a full row and a full column. All rows and columns are now occupied. If rows and columns are full, then and . The remaining rows and columns each contribute a boundary edge, soSince , this exceeds , which is larger than . These cases exhaust all sets and proveAs usual, and are integers; the specified interval is nonempty only for .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 110 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Symmetrization for an arbitrary real coefficient. Among graphs maximizing , choose one maximizingFor a vertex , put . This is the contribution of edges and triangles in a graph containing . If are nonadjacent, Zykov symmetrization replacing by a clone of changes by ; the opposite replacement changes it by . Maximality implies , so both changes preserve .
Let and . In the first replacement the vertex degrees in increase by one and those in decrease by one; in the opposite replacement these changes reverse. The changes to cancel when the two replacements are added. Since ,If the two vertex neighbourhoods differ, one replacement increases , a contradiction. Thus every pair of nonadjacent vertices has the same vertex neighbourhood. Nonadjacency, with equality allowed, is an equivalence relation: if and are nonadjacent and and are nonadjacent, their identical vertex neighbourhoods forbid as well. Its classes are independent sets and every cross-class edge is present. ThereforeThis edge-triangle symmetrization works for either sign of .
The exact supporting line. For , writeWe prove the triangle support line between bipartite and tripartite Turan graphs by maximizing . First . For , its values are respectively . For , the exact balancing of the Turan graph gives , while and the arithmetic-geometric mean inequality gives . Hence
By edge-triangle symmetrization a maximizing graph can be taken complete multipartite graph; among such maximizers use one with the fewest nonempty parts. If there are at least four parts, let be the two smallest sizes. Then . Merging them loses edges and triangles in a graph, so the objective changes byThis contradicts the choice of the number of parts. Thus at most three parts remain.
For three part sizes , the objective isIf , merging the parts of sizes does not decrease it, again contradicting minimality. If and , transferring one vertex from the largest to the smallest part raises by and strictly increases the objective. Thus a three-part maximizer has all sizes differing by at most one, and is . A maximizer with at most two parts has objective at most , since it has no triangles in a graph and the Mantel theorem bounds its edges. Finally,Therefore every graph satisfies . At the prescribed edge count this givesFor , the conclusion is simply the nonnegative lower bound zero. All rounding in the Turan graphs has been retained.
One edge above the bipartite threshold. Write . We prove the Triangle lower bound one edge above the Mantel threshold by induction on , allowing at least edges. For , five edges on four vertices give two triangles in a graph, and adding edges preserves this bound.
We will also use the following consequence of an inductive bound: on vertices, at least edges, for an integer , force at least triangles in a graph. Delete surplus edges first to leave exactly . Repeatedly delete an edge in a triangle in a graph until edges remain. The Mantel theorem guarantees such a triangle in a graph at every step; each deletion destroys at least one distinct triangle in a graph. Apply the inductive bound to the remaining graph.
Now take exactly edges. If every edge lies in a triangle in a graph, the edge-triangle incidence bound gives . This is at least for ; the base case was handled separately.
Otherwise choose an edge in no triangle in a graph. Its endpoints have disjoint vertex neighbourhoods, so . Deleting removes exactly edges and leaves at least edges. If , it leaves at least edges, and the strengthened inductive bound gives at least triangles in a graph already.
If , induction gives at least triangles in a graph after deletion. There must be an additional triangle in a graph containing or . Otherwise both and are independent sets; since they are disjoint and cover all vertices, would be bipartite graph, contradicting by the Mantel theorem. HenceThe bound is sharp: add one internal edge to one class of the complete bipartite graph . Its triangles in a graph are precisely that edge together with each of the vertices in the other class.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ii Paper 2 2F b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
For part (a), fix and consider the line segmentThe convex set contains this entire segment. Forwe have andIf , then for all sufficiently small positive , contradicting the hypothesis on . Thus
For part (b), is compact, and the product of the coordinates is a continuous function. The extreme value theorem therefore supplies maximizing that product. Assume every and apply part (a) to the convex setIt contains , and maximality of makes every coordinate product at most one. HenceIf is another maximizer, its coordinates are positive and . The arithmetic-geometric mean inequality giveswhile the displayed inequality gives the reverse bound. Equality in the arithmetic-geometric mean inequality forces every . Therefore the maximizer is unique.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ia Paper 1 11E b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
The arithmetic-geometric mean inequality givesThus convergence of implies convergence of by the comparison test for series.
The converse is false. DefineThe even terms make diverge, whileso the neighboring geometric-mean series converges.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 331 4 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Linearizing about the conductive state givesThe perturbations vanish at . For a normal mode with vertical dependence , put . The two modal equations are and . Eliminating givesNeutrality requires . The arithmetic-geometric mean inequality bounds this below by , with equality at . The first unstable vertical mode is therefore , givingThe wavelength statement applies at the first onset. At a general larger , maximizing the growth rate within a fixed vertical mode gives , so its preferred wavelength need not remain exactly two. This is the onset of convection in a horizontal Darcy layer.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 ii Paper 1 2H Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The set is compact because is closed and bounded, and the productis continuous. By the extreme value theorem, has a maximizer. Since meets the interior of the nonnegative orthant , some feasible product is positive, so every maximizer lies in .
On , maximizing is equivalent to maximizingThe Hessian of iswhich is negative definite. Thus is a strictly concave function, and it has at most one maximizer on the convex set . Denote this unique point by .
For any , the line segmentlies in . Since is maximal at , its right derivative there is nonpositive:ThereforeThis is the supporting inequality for the product maximizer on a compact convex subset of the positive orthant.
Suppose now that is invariant under cyclic coordinate permutation. That permutation preserves the product, so uniqueness forces it to fix . Hencefor some . More explicitly,Indeed, cyclic symmetry averaging puts the diagonal point with coordinate equal to the mean of any back in , while the preceding inequality with gives .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 ib Paper 3 4D Solution Created 2026-09-23 Updated 2026-09-25
At a regular constrained stationary point of on , the Lagrange multiplier method solvesFor the first problem, substitute to obtainIts stationary equations imply either or , and in either case the only real stationary point is , . Coercivity ensures that the minimum is attained, soat .
For the second problem, the arithmetic-geometric mean inequality givesConsequentlyEquality occurs at , and hence
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 ii Paper 4 35A b iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Direct contact permits no work extraction, so conservation of internal energy givesThe total entropy change isThe arithmetic-geometric mean inequality makes the last expression positive when , with equality only when the bodies were already at the same temperature. This is the entropy production of irreversible heat flow.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 4 20H a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Minkowski's lemma states that if is a full lattice in and is measurable, convex, and centrally symmetric, thenimplies that contains a nonzero point of .
Let be the two real embeddings. The Minkowski embedding of a real quadratic field identifies with a latticeof covolume . Choose a constant satisfyingFor , consider the closed diamondIt is convex and centrally symmetric, and its area isMinkowski's lemma supplies a nonzero whose two embeddings lie in .
For , the arithmetic-geometric mean inequality givesSince the coordinate product is the field norm,Finally, as . No fixed nonzero algebraic integer can occur for arbitrarily large , because its second embedding is nonzero. Consequently the elements obtained along an unbounded sequence of contain infinitely many distinct values. Here denotes the absolute norm, as usual in this inequality.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 ib Paper 1 4C Solution Created 2026-09-23 Updated 2026-09-25
At a regular constrained extremum of on , the tangent derivatives of vanish. Since is normal to the constraint surface, the Lagrange multiplier condition isOne solves these equations and then compares the resulting candidates, including any boundary or singular cases.
Let the base have dimensions and , and let the height be . Measure cardboard relative to the thickness of the front and back. The weighted amount used isbecause the bottom has triple thickness, the two front and back faces have ordinary thickness, and the two side faces have double thickness. The constraint is .
The multiplier equations areThey implyThus and ; imposing gives . ThereforeThis is the global minimum: by the arithmetic-geometric mean inequality,and equality holds at these dimensions. This is an instance of weighted open-box minimization.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 ib Paper 4 18H b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 205 1 d Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
PutThe numerator is the linear kernel, while the reciprocal of the denominator is the kernel from part c applied to and . The product of positive-semidefinite kernels therefore shows that is a positive-semidefinite kernel. The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality and the arithmetic-geometric mean inequality give , soEach power is positive semidefinite by the Schur product theorem, and the convergent sum is positive semidefinite.
Moreover . If is its canonical feature map, thenThe feature-space norm gives symmetry and the triangle inequality. Finally, implies , hence andwhich is equivalent to . Thus is a metric rather than merely a pseudometric.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 iii Paper 109 3 iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Apply coordinate compression in a product of paths in both coordinates. Replacing every fiber by an initial interval preserves the number of edges inside that fiber; between two neighboring fibers, the compressed sets span the minimum of their sizes, at least their original intersection size. Repeating the operation therefore never decreases the number of edges spanned and eventually produces a down-set.