Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 76 4 a ii Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Again put . To leading order the oscillator has form , while the second variable has a slow part . Averaging its equation over the fast period givesThe oscillatory forcing of the second variable produces only an order- correction: its leading fast derivative is , whose bounded primitive is . Thus it creates no secular term.
The oscillator solvability condition is the same as in part (i), with replaced by :Introduce accumulated slow timeThe shifted Van der Pol amplitude evolution therefore gives, for ,ConsequentlyAs before, uniformity for means a fixed bounded slow-time interval on which the envelope stays bounded. For it fails when reaches , with limiting value at . There is no bounded leading approximation covering all such slow times for arbitrary positive .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 76 4 a i Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Put and use the method of multiple scales with . At leading order, , so write with , . The order- equation isUsing , its fundamental sine coefficient is , and its fundamental cosine coefficient forces . Removing these resonant forcings is the solvability condition in the method of multiple scales. Thus the shifted Van der Pol amplitude evolution isWith and , solve by putting . This givesThe uniformly valid leading approximation is on bounded slow-time intervals for which remains bounded. The exact initial derivative is recovered by the first-order correction; the displayed leading expression already satisfies the leading initial data.
There is an important limitation to the source's unqualified time-range wording. Starting from , the amplitude decays for , is constant at leading order for , and grows for . In the latter case the denominator vanishes atA bounded-amplitude multiple-scale expansion is uniform for , not through its predicted large-amplitude breakdown. For the decaying case every fixed bounded slow-time interval is available; the leading unstable equilibrium at also has bounded amplitude over such intervals. The envelope singularity is a breakdown warning, not a proof that the exact original solution has precisely this blow-up time. The coefficient in the PDF is , correcting the converted TeX's duplicated .