Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Oxford / 2015 / Prelims / Mathematics V resit / Question 6 / b / Solution

For $0<y<\pi$, define $J(y)={\int }_0^{\pi }{u}_y(x,y)dx$. Differentiate under the integral and use Laplace's equation:Thus $J$ is constant. The top Neumann boundary condition gives $J(\pi )=0$, soFor the included endpoint $y^{\ast }=0$, the integral is interpreted as an improper integral at the bottom corners if necessary. The Fourier series constructed in c gives, on $0<x<\pi$,The second series is absolutely and uniformly convergent; the first term has only integrable logarithmic singularities. Its integral is zero since ${\int }_0^{\pi }\log (2\sin x)dx=0$, while every cosine term also has zero integral. This proves the endpoint as well:For completeness, the logarithmic integral follows without any endpoint differentiation. Put $I={\int }_0^{\pi /2}\log (\sin x)dx$ and substitute $x\mapsto \pi /2-x$ to obtain $I={\int }_0^{\pi /2}\log (\cos x)dx$. Adding and using $\sin x\cos x=\sin (2x)/2$ gives $2I=I-(\pi /2)\log 2$, hence $I=-(\pi /2)\log 2$ and the required full-interval result.