Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2023 / Paper 1 / 14

For an exact differential form, equality of the mixed partial derivatives requires $P_y=Q_x$. HereEquality for all $x>0$ and real $y$ forces $1/a=1/2$, so $\boxed{a=2}$. To construct the potential, integrate $P$ with respect to $x$:Differentiation with respect to $y$ gives $v_y=Q+C^{\prime }(y)$, so $C^{\prime }(y)=0$. Thus the most general potential on the connected domain $x>0$ isIts explicit partial derivatives verify sufficiency as well as necessity.

The stated total differential is that of $\pi r^{2}h$, so $V=\pi r^{2}h+C$. The zero-volume condition gives $C=0$. For positive $r,h$, divide the total differential by this volume to obtainFor the specified small changes, $dV/V\approx 2(0.01)+0.02=0.04$, so the volume increases by approximately $4\%$. The fractional expression requires $V>0$; at a degenerate zero-volume state it is undefined. For finite changes, the exact multiplier is $(1.01{)}^2(1.02)$, whose difference from $1$ is $4.0502\%$; the total differential gives its first-order approximation.

Let $t=y/x$. The product rule and the chain rule give the partial derivativesHence the terms containing ${\varphi }^{\prime }$ cancel:This also follows from the Euler theorem for homogeneous functions, because $u(\lambda x,\lambda y)=\lambda u(x,y)$ for $\lambda >0$.

The chain rule expresses the coordinate differential operators asThe coefficients are constant, so a second application givesandAdding cancels the mixed partial derivatives, and $a^2+b^2=1$ givesThe transformation has rotation matrix $\left(\begin{array}{cc}a& -b\\ b& a\end{array}\right)$, so this identity expresses the rotational invariance of the Laplacian.