Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 2 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2024 / Paper 1 / 6 / c / Solution

In the orthonormal basis of part (b), the three quadric surfaces have the following forms. For $\alpha =1$,a two-sheeted hyperboloid with axis $u$, vertices $(\pm 1/\sqrt{6},0,0)$, and one sheet on each side of the plane $u=0$. For $\alpha =0$,an elliptic cone with vertex at the origin and the same axis. For $\alpha =-1$,a one-sheet hyperboloid with axis $u$ and a waist ellipse at $u=0$, whose semiaxes are $1/\sqrt{3}$ along $v$ and $1/2$ along $w$. The sections at fixed $u$ enlarge away from the waist.