Past exam of the physics B course of the University of Cambridge 2011 Paper 2 Section C C13 Solution 2026-10-20
A normal mode is a small-oscillation motion with every coordinate proportional to one common sinusoid, at a fixed amplitude ratio and relative phase. Expanding an arbitrary small motion in normal mode coordinates decouples its linear equations into independent oscillators. With mechanical mass matrix and mechanical stiffness matrix , the generalized eigenvalue equation is .
Horizontal gravitational restoring force on each bob is . The two springs add on the first bob, on the middle bob, and on the last. Dividing by the bob masses gives the stated equations withReflection symmetry separates an antisymmetric end motion from two symmetric motions. The three coupled pendulums with equal end masses have independent modesCall their positive frequencies respectively. The middle amplitude in the last mode ensures . The modes are orthogonal in the mass-weighted inner product, rather than generally in the unweighted coordinate dot product.
The initially stationary displacement decomposes asThere are no sine terms because every initial velocity is zero. ThereforeThese give at and solve all three coupled equations. The spring constant is assumed positive; for the frequencies become degenerate and the same superposition reduces to uncoupled pendulum motion.
Past exam of the physics B course of the University of Cambridge 2012 Paper 1 Section C C13 Solution 2026-10-20
Use the Euler-Bernoulli beam equation for a uniform slender elastic beam, small deflection and small slope, neglecting axial tension, shear deformation, rotational inertia of a cross-section and damping. Let be Young's modulus, the second moment of area about the neutral axis, and the mass per unit length. If density instead denotes mass per volume, replace this by . The bending stiffness is ; the small-slope curvature is . The bending and kinetic energies areTwice integrating the variation of by parts gives the restoring load per unit length. Newton's second law therefore givesAt a pivot, displacement is fixed but slope is free; zero end bending moment gives . This also follows from the natural boundary term in the variation.
With separation of variables, givesChoose the time normalization . Initial rest removes the sine time term, so . The spatial characteristic roots are , givingThe two conditions at give and , hence . At , addition and subtraction of give and . Nontrivial positive-frequency modes therefore have and . Thus the simply supported beam normal modes areThe zero-frequency cubic solution also vanishes under these four endpoint conditions, so is not an additional mode.
For the specified release, small slope requires . Expand the initial deflection in the Fourier sine series. Its coefficients areWriting , the resulting motion isOnly odd normal modes occur because the initial profile is symmetric about the midpoint, and their amplitudes decrease as . The frequencies grow as , so the motion is dispersive and is not a single shape multiplied by one cosine. Nevertheless the ideal undamped solution is exactly periodic with period . At all odd-mode cosines vanish, so the bar is instantaneously straight; at it has the opposite initial deflection. The first mode dominates displacement, with third-mode amplitude only of the first.
There is initial curvature incompatibility at a moment-free beam end: the prescribed parabola has , whereas a moment-free pivot requires zero curvature at an endpoint. Therefore the data do not define a classical solution with curvature continuous through the two end-time corners. They do define a finite-energy weak solution after release of the forces or end moments that prepared the initial shape. The sine expansion represents that solution: its displacement reproduces the initial parabola, each mode satisfies the released endpoint conditions, and gives finite bending energy. One must not differentiate the initial series twice at its endpoints and assign the interior parabola's curvature there. This qualification leaves the modal displacement prediction intact.
Past exam of the physics B course of the University of Cambridge 2017 Paper 2 Section C C13 Solution 2026-10-18
Molecular transport across gradients. A gas can transport momentum, thermal energy and species abundance even when its average bulk velocity is zero. Molecules arriving at a point carry properties acquired near their preceding collisions. A small gradient makes the populations arriving from opposite sides slightly different, producing transport from larger to smaller values of the carried property. A continuum transport law requires a mean free path small compared with the gradient length, and relaxation times short compared with the observation time.
For a dilute hard-sphere gas,where is molecular collision diameter. Both speed and collision distance matter: high speed alone does not determine a transport coefficient.
A simple kinetic estimate makes the common structure explicit. For a quantity carried per particle, a molecule moving at angle to brings approximately . Expanding to first order and averaging an isotropic velocity distribution givessince and . This mean-free-path argument estimates the coefficients; a detailed collision calculation changes their numerical prefactors and distinguishes different relaxation rates.
Momentum transport and viscosity. For a shear flow with mean velocity , the transported directed momentum per molecule is . The net flux of momentum in the direction isHere is dynamic viscosity in . The associated shear stress on a material surface has the corresponding traction sign convention; the flux carries momentum from the faster-moving layer towards the slower-moving one. The kinematic viscosity is , with units . Viscosity smooths velocity gradients, and the lost ordered mechanical energy becomes heat.
Heat transport. Let be the thermal heat capacity per molecule, in . Substituting gives Fourier's law,Thermal conductivity has units . For a monatomic gas, translational equipartition gives . Rotational or vibrational excitations in other gases can increase the energy carried per molecule, while collisions govern how those modes exchange energy. A temperature gradient can therefore be transported differently from directed momentum even when the dimensional estimates look similar.
Species transport. For a dilute tracer or a mixture with prescribed total density and negligible bulk flow, molecules diffuse down concentration gradients. The first-gradient number flux is Fick's first law,The diffusivity has units ; multiplying number flux by the species mass gives mass flux. More generally one uses diffusion flux relative to the mixture's bulk velocity and specifies mass or mole fractions. The approximation is not a claim that an arbitrary pure-gas pressure gradient can remain at rest while only a Fick flux acts. In a mixture, collision cross-sections and relative molecular speeds, including the reduced mass, determine the species diffusivities.
Dependence on density and temperature. The kinetic estimates of gas transport coefficients predict, for fixed collision diameter and molecular heat capacity,Thus dynamic viscosity and thermal conductivity are approximately density independent in the dilute continuum regime. Reducing density reduces the number of carriers but increases their mean free path in the same proportion. At fixed density all three estimates grow as ; at fixed pressure, andKinematic viscosity and thermal diffusivity also grow roughly as at fixed pressure in this model. Real interaction potentials make effective collision cross-sections temperature dependent, and internal excitations change . Dense-gas correlations and boundaries invalidate the simple cancellation. In particular, when the mean free path approaches the apparatus scale, transport becomes free molecular; it cannot be described by extending the same local, pressure-independent Fourier and viscosity coefficients indefinitely.
Heat diffusion equation. For a stationary gas with constant volumetric heat capacity , constant thermal conductivity and negligible compression work, the energy balance in any fixed volume isHere is a possible heat generation rate per volume. The divergence theorem and Fourier's law yieldThermal diffusivity has units and is of order . In a moving or compressing gas, the material derivative, pressure-volume work and viscous heating must also enter the internal-energy equation. The displayed pure diffusion equation describes the approximation in which those effects are absent or negligible.
Representative solutions. With no source, a steady one-dimensional slab between temperatures at has and uniform heat flux . Thus a constant spatial gradient transports heat without changing local temperature in time when the boundaries continually supply and remove it.
For an infinite medium and an initial sinusoidal temperature perturbation,Short spatial wavelengths decay faster, and the characteristic smoothing length after time is . A finite slab with both ends held at has a sine expansion with factors ; its slowest relaxation time is .
An instantaneous heat input per unit transverse area at in an otherwise uniform infinite medium gives the Gaussian solutionIts integral conserves the deposited heat. The peak falls as while its width grows as ; diffusion redistributes energy instead of transporting a sharp front at a single velocity.
Finally, a semi-infinite body initially at and held at surface temperature from hasIt has and approaches far from the boundary at finite time. These solutions demonstrate steady conduction, mode decay, spreading of localized heat and boundary-driven diffusion. Their idealized behaviour at extremely short times or arbitrarily long distances must be interpreted within the continuum regime rather than as an assertion of instantaneous microscopic communication.
Past exam of the physics B course of the University of Cambridge 2018 Paper 2 Section B B9 Solution 2026-10-18
Definition and equations. A normal mode is a motion in which every component of a linear system has the same time dependence with fixed amplitude ratios and phases. For a conservative system near equilibrium, the most useful form isThe vector describes the mode shape, while is its angular frequency. Linear combinations of modes describe arbitrary sufficiently small motions when the modes form a complete basis.
Let be displacements of independent generalized coordinates from equilibrium. Expand the Lagrangian to quadratic order:The mass matrix defines a positive-definite quadratic form on the independent coordinates, while the stiffness matrix is the Hessian of the potential energy. Substituting a mode gives the generalized eigenvalue problem for small oscillationsA practical calculation identifies the equilibrium, chooses independent coordinates, computes the quadratic kinetic and potential energies, solves for the eigenvalues and then obtains their eigenvectors. One can equivalently diagonalize the real symmetric matrix . This guarantees real and a complete orthogonal basis in mass-weighted coordinates.
For distinct eigenvalues, the fact that and are real symmetric matrices impliesThus distinct modes are orthogonal in the inner product weighted by the mass matrix. Choosing decouples the motion into , with total energy . A positive-definite matrix gives positive eigenvalues and oscillatory stability. Zero modes can describe rigid translations or rotations without restoring force; a negative eigenvalue gives exponential instability rather than an oscillatory mode.
Symmetry. A symmetry preserving both quadratic energies maps modes into modes of the same frequency. Coordinates adapted to symmetry divide the eigenvalue problem into smaller independent blocks. For two identical subsystems, exchanging them gives symmetric and antisymmetric modes. The degeneracy of normal modes means that independent modes share one frequency. Higher-dimensional group representations of a symmetry can enforce such degeneracies; symmetry does not require every pair of modes to be degenerate, and accidental degeneracies can also occur. Within a degenerate eigenspace, orthogonal linear combinations are equally valid mode shapes.
For two equal masses , each attached to a fixed support by a spring of stiffness and coupled to the other by a spring of stiffness ,The symmetric mode leaves the coupling spring unstretched and has . The antisymmetric mode stretches it and has . Superposing the two gives beats when their frequencies are close.
Continuous systems. The same idea replaces matrices by differential operators and mode vectors by functions satisfying boundary conditions. For a taut string of length , tension and mass per unit length , the wave equation and fixed endpoints giveOrthogonality of the sine functions allows an arbitrary initial displacement to be decomposed into modes. Changing the endpoints changes the spectrum: boundary conditions are part of the physical mode problem.
A uniform chain of equal masses joined by springs , with spacing , has travelling normal modes withTheir quantization gives phonons; the long-wavelength limit is a sound wave. Rectangular electromagnetic cavity modes satisfy Maxwell's equations and conductor boundary conditions, with in vacuum. An elastic beam instead has a fourth-order spatial equation and flexural dispersion . These examples show how restoring forces and geometry determine the frequency spectrum.
Real systems. Small-amplitude motion is often approximately linear even when the full equations are nonlinear. Large amplitudes produce frequency shifts, mode coupling and transfer of energy between modes. Friction broadens resonances and makes free oscillations decay. A damping matrix proportional to or can retain the undamped mode shapes; general damping need not, and the appropriate eigenfrequencies and modes can be complex. External periodic forcing predominantly excites modes near resonance, with amplitude set by coupling to the forcing and dissipation. Imperfections split ideal degeneracies, while radiation or coupling to a surrounding fluid can remove energy from the chosen subsystem. Normal modes remain useful when linearization, the boundary conditions and the treatment of damping accurately describe the motion being measured.
The displacement is along , transverse to propagation in the membrane's plane. Write ; then . Here is the displacement amplitude, the initial phase, the angular frequency and the wavevector normal to constant-phase lines. Its magnitude is , and its direction specifies phase propagation for the chosen sign convention.
For equal-phase two-wave membrane modes, two equal complex amplitudes with opposite sum toThe edge condition gives , hence , , for this even-in- family. Opposite relative phase gives the sine family; together they yield all Dirichlet transverse modes , . For the equal-phase family,The lowest mode has . ThereforeIt approaches for and diverges as ; there is no real travelling-mode beyond the cutoff. This is an axial phase velocity, not the group velocity: . Here denotes the membrane wave speed, not the speed of light.
Membrane cutoff and evanescent response
. Original lowest-mode phase-velocity curve, with group velocity distinguished, and a schematic below-cutoff displacement envelope of exponential form. All lengths and amplitudes are dimensionless choices; no source apparatus drawing is copied. Details.For the evanescent membrane response below cutoff, below , put for decay along positive , with . A localized central drive creates an evanescent, sinusoidally oscillating deformation decaying away in both axial directions. Far enough from the drive the leading profile is proportional to . Higher evanescent modes contribute near the point source. The pattern has no steadily advancing axial phase front or far-field propagating wave; decreasing frequency increases its spatial localization.
Here is potential energy, is the stationary-state total energy eigenvalue, and is its spatial wavefunction. Wavefunction normalization gives , and is the probability of finding the particle in .
A bound state requires . Inside the well the equation is , whereas outside it is , withThe ground state is even and has no node, selecting inside. Normalizability selects decaying, not growing, exterior exponentials. Continuity of and givesThe first excited state, if present, is odd: a sine inside and opposite-sign decaying tails outside. Matching gives . On its first odd branch, , hence . Since , existence requiresThis is the first odd bound-state threshold of a square well. There is no excited bound state below that threshold; equality gives a non-normalizable zero-energy limiting state, not an extra bound state.
Original finite-well wavefunctions: an even nodeless ground state and an odd excited state in a deeper illustrative well
. Details. For the numerical well,The exterior probability of a symmetric finite-well state includes both tails:The threshold is , exceeding the well depth, so there is no excited bound state. The rounded supplied coefficients integrate to rather than exactly one; this rounding does not change the quoted probability precision materially.
For an even function, the interior sine term must vanish, because sine is odd and cosine is even. Comparing reflected exterior tails at any gives . Hence the parity condition alone isIt does not yet impose the matching condition on . Continuity at , when imposed in the next part, additionally gives .
An impulse at shifts the causal sine response. Substituting the Dirac delta in the convolution from part (i), or using the Laplace transform time-shift rule, giveswhere is the Heaviside step function. The answer is continuous at , while its first derivative jumps from to . Consequently its second distributional derivative contains exactly one unit Dirac delta at , giving . Since , both initial conditions vanish.
The apparent singularity at zero cancels: the Taylor series of the sine givesThus zero is a removable singularity, with extension . At , the other terms are holomorphic, whereas has a simple pole. ThereforeThere are no other finite singularities. If “all” includes the point at infinity on the Riemann sphere, it is an essential singularity: has infinitely many negative powers in its Laurent series at .
The geometric series for converges for , while the cancelled sine terms have an everywhere convergent Taylor series. Hence the requested Laurent series has no negative powers:For example,The extension through zero also makes this a Taylor series. The pole at fixes its radius of convergence at two.
Past exam of the theoretical mechanics course of the University of Oxford 2007 B 5 Solution 2026-10-31
For a material volume, mass conservation is . The transport theorem and arbitrariness of that volume give . Balance of linear momentum includes the pressure traction and body force:Apply transport, the divergence theorem and the mass equation to obtainFor small perturbations of the uniform resting barotropic state, write , . Linearized mass and momentum areTaking the curl shows that initially vanishing vorticity remains zero, so the acoustic velocity has a potential . Integrating momentum, using the additive freedom of a velocity potential to remove the spatially constant integration term, gives . Continuity now yields .
For spherical symmetry, set and . The radial equation is , or . HenceRigid boundaries require radial velocity at both radii. A form automatically satisfying the condition at isAt , the condition becomesTherefore the nonzero oscillatory eigenfrequencies obeyThe undivided sine-cosine form avoids artificial issues from dividing by a cosine. The formal root is the spatially constant zero-frequency potential additive freedom of a velocity potential, not a propagating acoustic oscillation. This is the radial acoustic spectrum between rigid concentric spheres.
Past exam of the theoretical mechanics course of the University of Oxford 2007 B 6 Solution 2026-10-31
For a vector described in axes rotating at constant angular velocity , the rotating-axes theorem is . Inertial particle velocity is . Applying the theorem once more gives inertial acceleration . Thus the rotating momentum equation isIf and density is constant, the centrifugal term can be absorbed into the reduced pressure in a rotating fluid:For small disturbances with , linearize to , , , together with incompressibility. Put . Taking the vertical curl gives . Taking divergence gives . Applying the Laplacian to the vertical momentum equation therefore gives . Another time derivative yieldsAll three velocity components are retained, even for fields independent of ; rotation produces the transverse component.
Set and seek . The rigid-wall conditions are then automatic and the scalar equation givesFor , define . The two possible oscillatory factors are distinguished by energy propagation. With horizontal wavenumber , the dispersion relation is and . An outgoing wave in must have , givingFor , define . Reject the exponentially growing branch, leaving the evanescent responseThe real part is the physical velocity. The radiation or bounded-decay condition is needed in addition to the wavemaker boundary value to pick a unique half-channel response. Steady forcing () is a singular limit: with nonzero rotation a steady geostrophic balance and impermeable top/bottom require , incompatible with a nonzero imposed sine profile. At the cutoff equality, the bounded outgoing polarization also degenerates. These exceptional cases cannot be obtained by blindly substituting into the two strict-inequality formulas. The propagating sign is the radiation sign for an inertial wave.
Let . Each independent fermion orbital is either empty or occupied once, so its grand partition factor is . Multiplying factors and taking the logarithm givesSince , this is the requested form. Spin or other orbital degeneracy is already included in .
For the Fermi-window convolution of the grand potential, defineDirect differentiation gives . The supplied PDF hint has the opposite sign; using that sign would contradict its grand-potential formula. Integrating twice with and vanishing upper boundary terms,At zero temperature , confirming .
Use the source's implicit unit normalization of the constant density of states; restoring a constant baseline multiplies the following potentials by . For the sinusoidal density of states, direct integration givesPhysical nonnegative density of states requires . Write and . The Fermi windowis even, with full-line moments , and . The last integral follows, for example, by expanding on into its alternating exponential series. When , extending the lower integration limit to introduces only exponentially small band-edge corrections. The supplied Fourier transform givesThe odd sine term vanishes. Substitution provesThe thermal damping of a sinusoidal density of states is therefore in the full oscillatory potential. The requested ratio instead concerns the thermal change . Its oscillatory thermal-change amplitude ratio isFor positive it decreases smoothly from the limit to zero:At exactly both thermal changes vanish; the quoted value is their limiting ratio. The amplitude is the envelope in chemical potential. At a particular fixed , the signed contribution ratio has in place of ; at an oscillation node the actual oscillatory contribution is zero. The large- behaviour still requires , so the useful range is .
For , apply Taylor's theorem to the sine about zero, retaining terms through degree four. Its fourth-order coefficient is zero, and its fifth derivative is the cosine function, givingThe cosine function is decreasing on , so . Multiplying by the nonnegative factor and adding proves both required bounds. At both are equalities.
Successive jumps occur at times separated by s. Between and s the plotted function is , periodically extended, with maximum and minimum . Its mean is therefore m, and is an odd function over that centered period.
For the Fourier series convention m and for every ; the nonconstant content consists of sine terms. If denotes the mean directly in the alternative convention , its value is m. Stating the convention resolves the otherwise ambiguous notation.
Periodic function Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
A periodic function repeats exactly after a nonzero shift of its input. For , a positive period of a function satisfiesOne interval of length therefore determines the whole function. For another domain of a function , a period must also preserve the domain, ; equality only where two domains happen to overlap is weaker. Periodicity is an exact translation of a function symmetry, rather than merely two similar-looking pieces of its graph.
The sine has fundamental period one. The function repeats after half a unit: the sine changes sign under that shift, but squaring removes the sign. The mixed function again has fundamental period one. All positive integer multiples of a period are periods, so specifying one period need not identify the shortest repetition.
If the input is time and is the fundamental period, the frequency is and the angular frequency is . Repetition lets a Fourier series describe a cycle using sines and cosines; the period average separates the reference level from the oscillating terms. Strang develops this representation and its Fourier coefficients in §4.1 of Computational Science and Engineering by Gilbert Strang.[ref]
Fourier Series for Periodic Functions. §4.1; pp. 317
This connection grew out of a physical problem. In his 1822 book Théorie analytique de la chaleur by Joseph Fourier, Joseph Fourier used periodic functions to extend profiles beyond their initial interval while treating heat conduction. Chapter III, §§233–234 combines even functions and odd functions into sine–cosine expansions and rescales their period.[ref] A modern Fourier series interpretation still requires the appropriate convergence conditions.
A constant function has every real shift as a period and no fundamental period. Without continuity, even a nonconstant periodic function can lack a smallest positive period; periodic function without a least positive period gives a concrete example. The period group of a function organizes all these possibilities.





