Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 68 5 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let , and . Along a smooth solution, . The exact difference contains only odd derivatives. Matching terms through degree four therefore requiresThe first two conditions give , which also implies . With , the remaining equations are and . HenceThe fifth spatial moment is . After dividing the exact-minus-scheme residual by , its first possible nonzero term isThis is the fourth-order two-step advection stencil. Thus the normalized local truncation error is at fixed positive Courant number, as required. At or the formula translates the physical advection branch exactly, but consistency of a numerical method alone does not decide stability of all two-level perturbations.