Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 ib Paper 1 5D iii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Rotate coordinates to and . The stream function becomesFor , both coefficients are negative, so every nonzero contour is a bounded ellipse surrounding the stationary origin. For , the form is indefinite: nonzero contours are unbounded hyperbolas, and the zero contour consists of straight separatrices. Consequently all nonstationary streamlines are bounded exactly when . The origin is itself a stationary bounded trajectory in every case; the assertion about boundedness concerns the nonstationary streamlines. The equality case is handled separately below. These are the linear planar strain and rotation streamlines.