Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Oxford / 2015 / Prelims / Mathematics V resit / Question 1 / b / i / Solution

In cylindrical coordinates, $(-y,x,0)=r{\mathbf{e}}_{\theta }$ and $x+r=r(1+\cos \theta )$. Hence the vector field simplifies toTake the orientation of $C$ to be increasing $\theta$, as in its given parametrization. On the circle, $d\mathbf{r}=a{\mathbf{e}}_{\theta }d\theta$, so its line integral isWe used $\sqrt{1+\cos \theta }=\sqrt{2}|\cos (\theta /2)|$; the cosine is nonnegative on this interval. In particular, the answer does not depend on $a$.