Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 ib Paper 3 13E Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A function is Fréchet differentiable at when there is a linear map such thatThis linear map, which is unique, is the derivative .
For the chain rule, if is differentiable at and is differentiable at , then is differentiable at and . Indeed write and , where , . Since , substitution giveswhich proves the assertion, including paths on which .
For , write . Away from the two diagonal lines, and the formula is a composition of smooth functions, hence differentiable. At the origin, , so its ratio to the displacement length tends to zero. Its derivative there is therefore zero: this is quadratic damping restores differentiability at the origin.
At a nonzero point with , necessarily . Along the direction,The denominator inside the sine is locally an invertible function of , with nonzero derivative . Choose sequences tending to zero for which its reciprocal equals and . The quotients tend to and . Thus even this directional derivative fails to exist, and the function is not differentiable there. ConsequentlyFor , the formula is smooth away from zero. At zero, , so the same remainder estimate gives zero derivative. HenceNo limit of the sine factor itself is needed for either derivative at the origin.