Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ia Paper 4 4A Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-05
The dimensions are , , , and . Under the stated model, are the only parameters determining the ascent time. If is dimensionless, then , , and , leaving one independent dimensionless variable. One convenient choice isThus dimensional analysis fixes the form, but Newton's second law must determine the function .
Take upward velocity as positive. Throughout ascent, Newton's second law with linear drag gives . An integrating factor or direct solution of this linear ordinary differential equation givesThe first zero of this velocity is the highest point, soThis vertical ascent under linear drag has for , since . The limit recovers the no-drag ascent time ; gives .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 342 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use the downward-positive displacement and the filament bending modulus and load density defined above. Two applications of integration by parts give the first variationThus the elastic-plus-gravitational force density is . In resistive-force theory, transverse motion has drag per unit length . Neglecting filament and fluid inertia, instantaneous force balance gives the forced small-slope elastohydrodynamic filament equationClamping fixes position and tangent, while the free end has zero bending moment and zero transverse shear force. ThereforeThe last two conditions also follow as natural boundary conditions from the variation, since the free-end values of and are arbitrary. Distributed weight does not add a concentrated force or moment at the tip.
At steady state, . Integrating first from the free end gives and . Integrating twice more with the clamp conditions gives the uniform-load bending of a clamped filament:In particular the free-end displacement is and the total buoyancy-corrected gravitational load is . Thus the tip stiffness of a uniformly loaded cantilever isThe last expression uses as Young's modulus; if itself is flexural rigidity, the same result reads . This is Hooke's law for the specified loading pattern. It is not the stiffness for a point force at the tip, which would be ; replacing a distributed force by its resultant does not preserve its bending moment distribution.
For dimensional analysis, force/length squared, length to the fourth power, hence force times length squared. Consequently force/length, as required for a spring constant. Also force times time/length squared makes , and all forces per unit length. Neither viscosity nor density enters the stiffness, although viscous drag controls the rate of approach to the steady shape. The small-slope approximation requires , since .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 344 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The dynamical scaling of binary-fluid coarsening assumes a statistically self-similar bicontinuous morphology with one growing length , thin interfaces, curvature of order , and typical fluid speed of order . Inertial acceleration then scales as and , viscous force density as , and capillary force density as . The pressure is eliminated or estimated together with the interfacial force. The numerical coefficients summarize geometry and projected force directions; this is a scaling closure, not a spatially exact momentum equation.
The approximation further neglects diffusive growth relative to advective growth, assumes fixed volume fraction and material parameters, no external forcing, and no additional relevant macroscopic length. A finite initial domain size, interface width or finite container would introduce further ratios outside the asymptotic scaling regime. Velocity gradients need not stay on the domain scale in a genuinely multiscale turbulent flow, so this single-length argument is not a proof for every hydrodynamic morphology.
With , and , dimensional analysis gives the unique scalesThus, within the stated asymptotic single-scale hypothesis, the hydrodynamic coarsening crossover scales give , . All four force-density terms have the same dimensional prefactor . Dividing by it yieldsPrimes denote . The PDF includes ; the TeX drops . The PDF expression is dimensionally consistent. For a positive growth branch, a resisting viscous term and a driving capillary term have opposite signed coefficients; one may set , . The question calls these coefficients order one, not positive. Treating every term on the printed right-hand side as positive would lose the viscous-capillary balance.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 345 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Write for the height of the filling-box first front above the floor and for the upward plume volume flux crossing it. Neglect the plume's horizontal area compared with , use the Boussinesq approximation, and measure buoyancy relative to the initially unmodified ambient. The first front separates fluid already modified by plume discharge from the unmodified fluid below; the entire upper region need not be uniformly mixed during an unventilated filling box model transient.
A finite injected volume flux cannot enter a hermetically sealed, fixed-volume room under the incompressible flow assumption. If , an equal overflow or exhaust is needed. Taking that exhaust at the ceiling, volume conservation of the region above the front givesThe source volume flux is subtracted because only entrained room fluid is removed from the initially unmodified region. The printed pure plume law has , so it cannot be an exact finite- source law down to the physical floor. In the far field where , or for a heat source whose injected volume flux is negligible, it givesHere is when the plume discharge first reaches the ceiling. Retaining while using the far-field law gives only while that law remains a valid approximation; it must not be extrapolated to predict negative plume entrainment. A plume virtual origin below the floor is one way to match a nonzero source volume flux.
For displacement ventilation, let be the total ceiling exhaust, the total buoyant-source volume flux, and the separate ambient inflow into the lower layer. Volume conservation and the upper-layer buoyancy flux balance giveThe ambient inflow has zero reference buoyancy. In the ideal two-layer closure the upper layer is uniformly mixed with reduced gravity , and the lower layer has zero reference buoyancy. The plume supplies the upper layer while lighter upper-layer air is removed at the ceiling. An interface is driven downward when and upward when ; since , its equilibrium is stable.
In the negligible-source-volume pure plume limit, identifying gives the intended one-source answerThe prescribed inequality makes , so both layers fit in the room. It does not, by itself, justify neglecting a finite source : the pure plume source region must also be small compared with , normally requiring . If denotes additional background ventilation rather than total exhaust, replace in both formulas by . If it is total exhaust, the separate ambient inlet carries . These conventions must not be mixed.
For independent equal axisymmetric pure plumes, adding their volume fluxes givesThus the conventional multiple-plume displacement ventilation calculation with negligible source volume flux and separate ambient ventilation givesSplitting the buoyancy flux increases total fluid entrainment, so the same ventilation balances the plumes at a lower interface. The global buoyancy flux is unchanged, which leaves the upper-layer reduced gravity unchanged. Independence requires sufficiently separated sources and plumes that do not merge below the interface.
There is, however, a substantive problem with the literal source-volume specification in this paragraph of the PDF. It puts all through the buoyant sources, so and . For every positive interface height, entraining plumes haveThere is no fresh ambient inflow to replace the lower-layer fluid being entrained. Consequently the stated positive steady two-layer configuration does not follow from those literal hypotheses. This is no steady displacement layer without ambient supply, not a small correction to the scaling. For example, a matched plume virtual origin givesWhen , this yields . The unshifted answer equals the omitted in this case, so neglecting the source region cannot be justified. Also each source has reference buoyancy , already equal to the proposed upper-layer value; a steady positive plume cannot entrain zero-buoyancy lower fluid and still deliver that same value. The conventional answer is valid for a corrected arrangement with negligible-volume buoyancy sources and a separate ambient inlet, or with source flux and the remaining supplied directly to the lower layer. A real room may have other circulation or continuous stratification, but that requires a different model.
For the intended displacement ventilation model, reducing the exhaust to makes the new equilibriumThe interface initially descends since its old plume volume flux exceeds the new exhaust. In ventilated filling-box relaxation, writing and taking the linearization of the two balances above givesAs , the two decay times areA dimensional analysis estimate of the full adjustment time is thereforeThe interface adjusts on the shorter lower-layer scale; replacing the buoyancy stored throughout the upper layer is slower. Exact equilibrium is approached asymptotically, and a specified small relative tolerance adds a logarithmic factor. For the literal all-inflow-through-sources arrangement there is no positive two-layer equilibrium to return to; is only a flushing-scale estimate for a different, whole-room adjustment.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 345 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
Use a two-sided top-hat line plume with full width , upward speed , and reduced gravity uniform across the plume. Fluxes are measured per unit span along the line source: the volume flux is , the kinematic momentum flux is , and the buoyancy flux is . If the inward edge speed is , where is the entrainment coefficient, the two exposed edges giveThese are the volume conservation, momentum conservation, and buoyancy flux balances for a Boussinesq approximation plume in an unstratified ambient. Entrained ambient fluid supplies neither vertical momentum nor reference buoyancy.
A pure plume has no persistent source length scale. Since a line-source has dimensions , dimensional analysis gives constant , , and . Substituting constant into and the momentum balance determines the coefficients:Thus and when width is full width and velocity and buoyancy have top-hat profiles. If width means half-width, instead. Other prescribed profile shapes change these numerical factors; the linear growth laws remain the same. The point-source in Question 1 has different dimensions, so its law must not be used here.
Let be local contaminant concentration and let be horizontally integrated plume concentration. Its conserved amount per unit span is . The dilute contaminant is a passive scalar; the maintained plume is unaffected by its impulsive release. A one-dimensional effective transport closure takes the integrated scalar flux to beThe constant advective speed and the eddy diffusivity scaling follow from the line-plume scales. The entrainment coefficient alone does not determine the scalar dispersion coefficient: this Fickian closure for the integrated variable is an additional modelling assumption. Mass conservation then gives the displayed transport equation in the PDF. With this effective closure and advective speed chosen as , ; if , then , with independent dimensionless mixing coefficient .
There is a second possible closure convention. If one instead applies local diffusive flux to horizontally averaged plume concentration , its integrated diffusive flux is . For , the total scalar flux is then . The same printed equation is obtained with , rather than . Thus the printed and should be regarded as effective coefficients unless the averaging and closure conventions are specified; no equality between and the velocity prefactor is universal.
Assume , , an initial impulse at the origin, no further contaminant input, and zero endpoint scalar flux for . For a similarity solution, putSubstituting into the advection-diffusion equation givesDecay at infinity makes the integrated constant zero. Hence , and normalization with the gamma function gives . The resulting gamma impulse solution for linearly increasing diffusivity isIts integral over is . Its flux is , which vanishes at both endpoints for . The scale shrinks to zero as , so the normalized solution has weak convergence of probability measures to the required unit source impulse. The mass at the boundary is a full unit impulse on the half-line, not half of a whole-line impulse.
For the integrated quantity, , and consequentlyThis verifies the printed location for horizontally integrated plume concentration. It is a maximum because the derivative changes from positive to negative there. The normalized profile is a gamma distribution with shape : its expected value is and its variance is , so neither the mean position nor the spread should be mistaken for the modal position.
The PDF changes from “integral” to “averaged” concentration in its final request. A genuine horizontally averaged plume concentration divides by the growing width , and is thereforeIt is normalized by , not by . When , its interior maximum isWhen it decreases from a finite boundary supremum; when it is singular at the ideal point source and has no positive interior maximum. A finite source regularizes that singularity. Thus the final printed maximum is correct for the integrated variable , or for an “average” using a fixed reference width, but is not generally the maximum of the local mean . Both quantities have been given rather than silently identifying them. If , the smooth similarity formula is replaced by the advected impulse ; positive eddy diffusivity is essential to the gamma profile.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ib Paper 2 7D Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Write . The vertical component of the balance gives hydrostatic pressure,Its horizontal gradient is . The horizontal balance is consequentlyThus : the velocity is tangent to every level set of , so those contours are streamlines of the geostrophic flow.
Across a vertical section joining the contours and , an element of horizontal distance normal to the contours is , while . The volumetric flow rate is thereforeFor dimensional analysis, , and , so the result has dimension , exactly that of a volume flux.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 314 2 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
The dimensions of the injected power and ambient mass density are and . Requiring to have the dimensions of length givesThus dimensional analysis gives the adiabatic superbubble similarity solutionThe dimensionless coefficient can depend on and the specified inner structure, but dimensions alone cannot determine it. Constant power differs from a fixed-energy explosion because the energy available at time is proportional to . This scaling assumes that ambient pressure, gravity, radiative losses and the finite injection radius introduce no relevant competing scale.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 iii Paper 345 3 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Put and under the literal mass convention. Their dimensions are and . Dimensional analysis givesThe jet length compares source momentum with buoyancy. The region near the source behaves as a turbulent round jet; sufficiently far away, the forced plume behaves like a pure plume. With the constant entrainment coefficient retained explicitly, substantial turning occurs over a length of order , where . Statements involving or normally hold this dimensionless coefficient fixed.
Near the point source, and the Batchelor entrainment hypothesis gives . ThereforeIntegrating the centreline tangent givesTo leading order the centreline is a straight turbulent round jet at its source inclination. For the horizontal source, the first curvature is the horizontal forced-plume trajectoryFor a vertical source, , the trajectory stays vertical rather than developing this cubic transverse displacement. If , there is no finite buoyancy-induced jet length and the turbulent round jet remains straight.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ia Paper 4 11A b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
Write and . The constant electric force gives momentumCombining with the relativistic energy-momentum relation givesThe dimensional analysis from part (a) confirms that has the dimensions of momentum, so is dimensionless and the expression has the dimensions of velocity.
The speed increases monotonically from zero and approaches the speed of light asymptotically:Integrating in the direction of the field givesAt small times, the Taylor expansion of the square root gives the nonrelativistic limitwhich is motion from rest with the constant acceleration .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 iii Paper 345 3 c i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-05
Let as above. A self-similar starting plume has no source length or time scale; dimensional analysis therefore givesThe dimensionless constants depend on the entrainment coefficient and thermal closure. Thus is constant because the underlying Boussinesq point-source plume has . The steadily increasing thermal volume scales as , even though its reduced gravity decreases.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 321 2 e Solution 2026-09-28
The specific angular momentum of a circular Keplerian orbit is . Therefore the disk angular momentum iswhereThe absence of an external or inner-boundary torque makes , and hence , constant.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 329 1 Solution 2026-09-29
In a cross-section normal to the cylinder axes, measure from the line of contact. The two circular boundaries have the parabolic approximationfor their separation. The contact point of the meniscus is at , so the leading cross-sectional area isThe area of the small meniscus cap is and is lower order. At its upper end the gap has width . A tangent semicircle therefore has radius and curvature
The Young–Laplace equation makes the liquid pressure, relative to the nearly uniform gas pressure,At a fixed , lubrication theory gives a planar Poiseuille flow through a gap of width , with axial flux per unit Integrating across the cusp,The continuity equation now gives
Set . Since , this is the porous medium equationConservation of the fixed volumeand dimensional analysis give the self-similar solution . One integration of the resulting ordinary differential equation yields the compactly supported Barenblatt solutionEquivalently,Its tip is . Usingin the volume constraint gives . Therefore
For vertical cylinders at equilibrium, hydrostatic pressure gives . Balancing this with the capillary pressure gives the large-height profile
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2022 iii Paper 329 1 c i Solution 2026-09-28
The Linearity of Stokes flow makes every velocity linear in . The only available isotropic polar vector built from the axial vector and separation vector is . Dimensional analysis then givesAn angular velocity is axial, so the two independent isotropic possibilities are and . Hencefor dimensionless scalar functions .
In the midplane, the vacuum magnetic dipole field has scale , while the result of part i gives . Ampère's law then gives the induced-field estimatewhere numerical factors are immaterial in this dimensional analysis. Thus atThis is the light cylinder radius: rigid corotation would have . The nonrelativistic approximation and the assumed unmodified vacuum field therefore fail at the same scale, and a self-consistent pulsar magnetosphere must replace them.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2026 iii Paper 332 3 c Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Use the dimensional analysisand define the dimensionless sliding parameterThe dimensionless flux and steady conservation law areOn the right half-cap, let the snowline be and the nose be . The zero-flux condition at the ice divide gives in the accumulation region. Continuity of gives in the ablation region, and zero nose flux gives
Physical dimension 2026-10-06
Physics Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-24
Radiogenic heating 2026-10-06
Radiogenic heating is thermal energy deposited by radioactive decay. If its specific heating rate is in watts per kilogram, the volumetric rate is and the heat input per horizontal area to a column of depth is . The distinction between specific and volumetric rates matters in dimensional analysis of a convective heat flux law.
Self-similar starting plume 2026-10-05
For constant kinematic buoyancy flux from a point source, dimensional analysis gives head height and radius proportional to , head velocity proportional to , and head reduced gravity proportional to . Dimensionless coefficients require the chosen fluid entrainment and head closures.