Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 154 2 2 Solution 2026-09-28
Differentiate the energy and use the chain rule:After integration by parts, the middle term is . Thereforeby the defocusing semilinear wave equation. Thus the total energy is conserved.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 208 2 a Solution Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-03
Write with standard normal and set . The Gaussian Poincaré inequality and the chain rule giveHence satisfies a -Poincaré inequality in the question's convention, where the constant is squared on the right-hand side.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 208 2 c Solution Created 2026-09-28 Updated 2026-10-03
Let be continuously differentiable. Applying the Poincaré inequality for to and using the chain rule givesThus the Pushforward of a Poincaré inequality by a Lipschitz function gives a -Poincaré inequality for .
For these increasing warps, the square-root velocity function is . The chain rule givesThereforewhere the last equality again uses the change of variables formula. Taking square roots proves invariance under common right composition by .
Substitute into the given equation. The chain rule givesThe incident reduced field is the constant one, so and . During a thin-screen crossing, . Its mixed-derivative contribution integrates to . More precisely, its contribution to is , while the product of its first derivatives contributes only at still higher order. Thereforeand hence
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 336 1 a Solution 2026-09-28
The chain rule andgiveApplying the same rule to and in the Euler-Lagrange field equation yields the exact modulated equation
Multiply this equation by . Since and are independent of the fast phase,The product rule then rearranges the field equation into the exact modulated-wave first integralAverage this identity over one period in . Periodicity kills the first term, while differentiation of the averaged Lagrangian givesConsequently
The same two equations follow directly from the modulated variational principle. Varying giveswhich is the exact field equation above. For a variation of , use and . Integration by parts in and gives the averaged equation. Thus variation with respect to the periodic profile reproduces the local wave equation, whereas variation with respect to its slow phase gives the Whitham modulation equation for wave action.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 3 25G a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Choose the orientation of a surface represented by a smooth Gauss map . The shape operator at isIf its principal curvatures are , then by definition
Let be a proper Euclidean motion of Euclidean three-space, so . Orient by transporting the normal:The chain rule gives the orthogonal conjugacyThe determinant and trace are invariant under similarity, so the Euclidean invariance of the shape operator yields
If the surface orientation is reversed, then and are multiplied by . Therefore the orientation reversal of surface curvature says
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 3 8D b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Hamilton's equations and the multivariable chain rule giveThus the Hamiltonian conservation law gives
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 3 8D c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
If for every positive real , differentiate with respect to at . The chain rule gives exactlyso every smooth scale-invariant satisfies the constraint. The same conclusion for negative follows wherever the stated invariance is defined; differentiation only needs the positive component containing .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 ia Paper 1 10E c iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
To say that is twice differentiable at means that is defined in a neighbourhood of and is differentiable at ; its derivative is .
By the chain rule, near ,Since is differentiable and is differentiable at , another use of the chain rule shows that is differentiable at . The product rule then proves that the displayed product is differentiable. Hence is twice differentiable, with the second derivative chain rule
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 ia Paper 1 10E c i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 iii Paper 327 2 Solution 2026-09-28
The space of test functions isA sequence converges to in when all supports lie eventually in one compact set andfor every multi-index . A distribution is a linear functional such that, for every compact , there are and withwhenever . Convergence in is pointwise convergence on test functions.
Continuity plainly implies sequential continuity. Conversely, suppose the linear form is sequentially continuous but the displayed estimate fails for some compact . For every , choose supported in such thatThen in , while , a contradiction. Hence the seminorm estimate holds on every compact set and .
For a translation vector and a multi-index , defineThese definitions extend ordinary translation and differentiation to distributions.
If for every , differentiating its pairing at gives . Conversely, if , then for every test functionThe pairing is constant in , hence . This proves both directions of translation invariance and vanishing distributional derivative.
Finally, the distributional differentiation obeys the linear chain rule under the linear coordinates and . Thusand likewiseas distributions. Adding the two identities givesthe one-dimensional wave equation; this is the low-regularity form of the travelling waves in the D'Alembert formula.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 iii Paper 105 2 d Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Use the reflection extension from a half-spaceIt is plainly linear and restricts to on . For a smooth , the chain rule givesA change of variables therefore givesfor , with the evident equality of essential suprema for . Approximate a general by the smooth functions from part c. The estimate makes their reflections Cauchy in , and their limit defines a bounded Sobolev extension operator with .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 iii Paper 105 3 a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
For and , define the characteristic curve byThe bounded derivative makes globally Lipschitz, uniformly in . On each finite time interval, , so Gronwall inequality prevents finite-time escape. The Picard-Lindelof theorem therefore gives a unique trajectory for every finite . Differentiation in givesso the characteristic flow map is a increasing diffeomorphism.
Along a characteristic, the chain rule changes the equation intoTracing backward by the flow therefore givesThe regularity of the flow makes this a classical solution. Conversely, every classical solution obeys the same ordinary differential equation along every characteristic, so the formula also proves uniqueness.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 105 1 b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 105 3 a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
The characteristic flow map solves the ordinary differential equationand henceAlong this characteristic curve, the chain rule givesThe value is therefore constant, and tracing back to time zero gives the classical solutionDirect differentiation verifies both the linear transport equation and its initial value.
For and , the change of variables convertsinto , where . The chain rule cancels the first-derivative terms. Thus and form a pair of linearly independent solutions, with Wronskian . This is a variable-speed reparametrization of the harmonic oscillator equation.
If has Poincaré constant and is -Lipschitz, then the pushforward measure has Poincaré constant at most . Apply the original inequality to and use the chain rule.
Reciprocal-coordinate reduction of a beam-type equation Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
For , the change of variables and converts into . The chain rule gives and . Thus . The prefactor cancels the derivative term introduced by inverting the independent variable.
Sigmoid-softmax network gradients 2026-10-05
For hidden activations and class probabilities , a one-hot label has log-likelihood . Put and . ThenThese follow from the chain rule and give single-observation stochastic gradient descent updates for the negative log-likelihood.