Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2013 ia Paper 1 11E iv Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-07
Set and . Both vanish at zero. For , their derivative ratio isTwice differentiability at makes both quotients tend to . Apply the endpoint L'Hôpital's rule proved in part (iii) for . For the other side use the reflected positive variable ; and are even, so their quotient is unchanged. Thus the two-sided limit isThis is the second-order central difference limit. The proof only uses differentiability of at and differentiability nearby; it does not incorrectly assume is continuous.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2017 iii Paper 341 4 i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-06
The original PDF has a spatial shift , so the printed scheme is not the usual second-order BDF discretization. The PDF does have on the right; the TeX aid loses that factor two, and that transcription must not be used.
Let , , and expand an exact smooth heat equation solution about . Relative to the standard unshifted backward differentiation formula, the printed newest value addsDividing the raw residual by , its expansion isIn particular, for the usual refinement with fixed , the term generally diverges. A concrete smooth counterexample is , which satisfies the Dirichlet boundary conditions and has at . Thus the printed scheme has no consistent order under fixed- refinement. Its normalized shift error is , so one could only investigate a special coupled limit such as after specifying a valid boundary closure; it has no standard joint second-order accuracy.
For the likely intended correction , the extra shift terms disappear. The normalized local truncation error isWith a stable, suitably accurate starter, the corrected backward differentiation formula combined with the second-order central difference therefore hasThis is a correction to the printed method, not a claim about it.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2018 ii Paper 3 41E a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Let . For an exact smooth solution of the diffusion equation, the second-order central difference givesSince the Courant number is fixed, . Taylor expansion in time givesUsing and cancels the leading terms. Because , the residual, and hence the local truncation error in the convention of the question, is
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2019 ii Paper 3 40C a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-03
Let be the sampled exact solution and let denote the update matrix of the Forward Euler diffusion scheme. For ,is a convex combination, with the homogeneous boundary values included. ThereforeThis is the parabolic discrete maximum principle and proves max-norm stability directly.
The Taylor theorem and the second-order central difference give the exact-grid residualfor a sufficiently smooth solution on a fixed interval . If , thenIteration for yieldsThus implies convergence when the initial grid values converge to the initial data.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2021 iii Paper 341 3 b Solution Created 2026-09-29 Updated 2026-10-03
Here and periodic indexing is taken modulo . The second-order central difference matrix is the real symmetric circulant matrixSince is real diagonal, is Hermitian. Therefore is skew-Hermitian, and
Second-difference analyzing function 2026-10-14
The Haar wavelet provides an explicit one-vanishing moment comparison:It cancels a constant polynomial, but not a nonconstant affine function. To obtain two vanishing moments by an equally transparent construction, take three adjacent unit intervals with heights proportional to :The L2 norm normalization follows from . Direct integration givesThus has exactly two vanishing moments. In fact its coefficient is a finite difference of adjacent local integrals:The weights are those of the second-order central difference. The first moment balances the centres of the three intervals; it is not enough merely to balance their signed areas.
Signed overlaps of the Haar and second-difference analyzing functions with constant, linear, and quadratic test polynomials
. Details. This is a normalized analyzing function, with no orthonormal basis assertion. Indeed, its unit translate has nonzero L2 inner product:Hence these translates already fail orthogonality. The Daubechies wavelet construction imposes additional refinement and orthogonality requirements; two vanishing moments and unit L2 norm by themselves do not supply those requirements.
