Past exam of the mathematical methods I course of the University of Oxford 2014 resit 13 ii Solution 2026-10-25
Set . Wherever , the chain rule and the given implicit differential equation giveThus and . Squaring without losing the square-root sign restriction giveswith either sign of on its interval of definition. These parabolas satisfy . Their vertex is a regular point as a parametrized curve but cannot belong to a differentiable graph satisfying the equation: there while . The degenerate case gives the separate solution in the differential-form interpretation printed in the paper. It would be lost by dividing the equation by .
Singular initial-point branches and the parabolic integral curves, with their graph-domain restrictions
. Details. Past exam of the mathematical methods I course of the University of Oxford 2014 resit 4 Solution 2026-10-25
Where and , the separable differential equation givesThe requested point selects the implicit solution . The two real branches approaching that point areThere is an important initial value problem qualification: the differential equation as printed has no classical solution through the specified initial point. Its right side is undefined at , and these branches have an infinite one-sided derivative as . They satisfy the differential equation on and extend continuously to the requested point. Multiplying by the vanishing denominator produces an implicit differential equation with a larger domain; it does not repair the original initial value problem.
