Past exam of the mathematical methods I course of the University of Oxford / 2021 resit / 7

An exact differential $Mdx+Ndy$ is $d\Phi$ for a scalar potential function $\Phi$, so $M=\partial \Phi /\partial x$ and $N=\partial \Phi /\partial y$. Equality $\partial M/\partial y=\partial N/\partial x$ is necessary, and is sufficient on a simply connected space when these partial derivatives are continuous.

Here, after multiplying the ordinary differential equation by $dx$,On either half-plane $y>0$ or $y<0$, integrate $M$ with respect to $x$:Comparison of $\partial \Phi /\partial y$ with $N$ gives $h^{\prime }(y)=6y$, hence $h(y)=3y^2$ up to a constant. The solution is therefore the family of level setsLocally these define differentiable graphs $y(x)$ wherever $N\ne 0$, by the implicit function theorem. When $N=0$, $M\ne 0$ on this domain, so a finite derivative cannot satisfy $M+N{y}^{\prime }=0$ there; such points are vertical tangents of the implicit curves, rather than additional classical graph solutions.