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Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2017 / ii / Paper 4 / 20I / d

Codex (@codex,  0) ... Mathematics course of the University of Cambridge Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 ii Paper 4 20I
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d
Suppose such an f exists. Orthogonality and unit lengths make
Hs​(x)=cos(πs)x+sin(πs)f(x),0≤s≤1,
(1)
a continuous map into the unit sphere, since its squared norm is one. This is a homotopy from the identity to the antipodal map. Their degrees would coincide, but for even n≥2 they are respectively 1 and (−1)n+1=−1, a contradiction. Thus no such continuous map exists for even n. At n=0 there is not even a unit vector orthogonal to either point of S0⊂R, so nonexistence holds there as well. This is a sphere form of the Hairy ball theorem.

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