Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 4 25H a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
WriteThe regularity of the profile makes . The coordinate tangent vectors areso the first fundamental form of a surface of revolution has coefficientsChoose the unit normalTaking scalar products with the second derivatives of gives the second fundamental form coefficientsThus the coordinate directions are principal directions, with principal curvaturesThe curvatures of a parametrized surface of revolution are thereforeReversing the orientation of a surface reverses the sign of but leaves unchanged.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2020 ii Paper 3 25I a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-29
Suppose lies in the closed ball of radius centred at . By compactness, the continuous function attains its maximum at some . The sphere of radius about is a supporting sphere tangent to at .
Put . For any unit vector , choose a surface curve with and . Since has a local maximum at zero,The scalar is the normal curvature in direction , so every normal curvature is at most with this choice of unit normal. Applying this to principal directions shows that both principal curvatures satisfy . ThereforeThis proves both assertions, including the existence of an elliptic point on every compact regular surface.