Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2001 Paper 1 2 Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
On the basic interval the graph is the pair of straight segments joining , and . Its periodic extension is an even triangular wave.
The even triangular wave and its periodic extension
. Original plot marking the basic interval and the repeated linear pieces. Details.The Fourier coefficients satisfy by evenness, andFor the second formula, integration by parts gives . Only odd indices survive, giving this rescaled Fourier cosine series of a triangular wave:The pointwise convergence of a piecewise smooth Fourier series applies throughout the interval, including the continuous joined endpoints. The coefficients also imply uniform convergence by the Weierstrass M-test. At , the value is one, so
Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge 2003 Paper 2 2 Solution Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
For an odd integrable function, both and are odd. Their integrals over therefore vanish, so the constant and cosine Fourier coefficients are zero. For , the remaining Fourier sine coefficients areThe product-to-sum identity in the first step reduces the integral to two cosines. Here is real and noninteger, so no denominator vanishes. Consequently the Fourier series of a noninteger-frequency sine isAt every term is zero. The Fourier series converges there to the average of the two limits of the periodic extension, namely zero, rather than to the nonzero endpoint values .

