Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2001 iii Paper 31 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Choose the sign conventionThis is the optimization Lagrangian; equality-constraint Lagrange multipliers are unrestricted in sign. The Lagrangian sufficiency theorem for minimization says: if satisfies and globally minimizes on for some , then it globally minimizes the constrained objective function. Indeed, for every feasible ,This is a full global certificate, not merely stationarity. No convexity is needed for the implication, although convexity commonly supplies the required global optimization Lagrangian minimum.
Let , setting , and assume is finite. The Strong Lagrangian property at means that a finite multiplier attains the constrained value as an unconstrained lower bound:This includes dual attainment, but need not include primal attainment. A non-vertical supporting hyperplane of a value function at has a finite slope and supports the epigraph from below:If this inequality holds, then for every ,so . Conversely restricting the infimum to gives , even if the primal infimum is approached only by a sequence. Thus equality holds. In the reverse direction, the Strong optimization Lagrangian identity implies for every . Taking the infimum over yields the supporting inequality, with empty fibres causing no problem. This proves both implications without a convexity or attainment assumption beyond finite .
For the advertising calculation, measure the budget in thousands of pounds by . Requiring the full budget to be spent gives , with . Substitute to reduce the maximization problem toIts second derivative is , so the unique constrained maximum is obtained by clipping the stationary point:The upper constraint never clips the interior formula because for . The maximal revenue in thousands of pounds isEquivalently the revenue Hessian is , negative definite since its leading minor is negative and its determinant is seven. Thus the full-budget affine feasible set has a unique global maximum.
At the two requested budgets,The units in the middle columns are minutes; the last column is thousands of pounds. Revenue measured in pounds is , soAn additional advertising pound therefore increases optimized revenue locally by £2.50 at the smaller budget and £0.25 at the larger budget. These are marginal rates, not exact finite-difference increments: on the interior branch .
The maximization multiplier in equals on the interior branch. The sign is consistent with the minimization convention above applied to , whose supporting slope is . If spending is only capped by the budget, rather than required to equal it, these same answers apply at the two budgets. Beyond £11,000 the unconstrained maximum is affordable, so further allowed spending is unused and the capped-budget value is constant; forced full spending would instead lower revenue.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 35 1 a Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Suppose the non-vertical supporting hyperplane of a value function has slope . Every then satisfiesso . Taking the infimum gives . Conversely, feasible points approaching the infimum of have , so even if no primal minimizer exists. Thereforewhich is the Strong Lagrangian property.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 35 1 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
If the Strong Lagrangian property holds with multiplier , its infimum identity implies, for every ,For any feasible right-hand side , take the infimum over to obtainThe inequality also holds at infeasible , where , and it is equality at . Thus is the required non-vertical supporting hyperplane of a value function. This proves the converse and completes the equivalence. Neither implication requires that be a convex set.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2010 iii Paper 35 1 Solution 2026-10-14
Use the optimization Lagrangian with the sensitivity sign conventionFor equality constraints the Lagrange multipliers have unrestricted signs. The Lagrangian sufficiency theorem says that if and, for some , globally minimizes over , then globally minimizes subject to the constraint. Indeed every feasible satisfiesThis proves the theorem without a convexity or differentiability assumption. Merely finding a stationary point of the optimization Lagrangian would not establish its required global minimum.
Let , with value when the feasible set is empty, and suppose is finite. The problem has the Strong Lagrangian property if a finite multiplier satisfiesThis includes attainment of the dual bound by a multiplier. It does not by itself assert attainment of the primal infimum. For every multiplier, restricting the infimum to feasible gives , the relevant weak duality. A non-vertical supporting hyperplane of a value function is a planewith for every . Its vertical coefficient is nonzero and has been normalized to one; the epigraph lies above it. The two directions of the equivalence are proved in parts (a) and (b).
For the sampling allocation put . Finite variance requires every ; interpret the objective at a zero coordinate as . An optimum uses all the budget, because scaling every positive up would otherwise reduce the objective while remaining feasible. The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality gives the global boundEquality requires to be proportional to . The budget then determines the unique allocation:This is the optimal cost-constrained stratified sampling allocation.
For an inequality , our sign convention uses , so is a lower bound on at feasible points. Its coordinate stationary equations are , and the displayed allocation givesThe function has a strict global minimum at : its second derivative is and its value diverges at both endpoints of . Thus the multiplier also supplies the Lagrangian sufficiency theorem certificate, with the tight inequality giving complementary slackness.
Strong Lagrangian property 2026-10-14
For a finite constrained optimum value and optimization Lagrangian , the strong Lagrangian property means that some finite Lagrange multiplier attains the dual lower bound exactly: . It includes dual attainment, but need not include primal attainment. It is equivalent to a non-vertical supporting hyperplane of a value function: a supporting slope gives , hence ; weak duality gives the opposite inequality. Conversely the infimum identity bounds every below by ; taking the infimum over gives the supporting inequality. No convexity assumption is needed for this equivalence.