Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 ia Paper 4 12A Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
The moment of inertia of a uniform solid cylinder is taken about its symmetry axis. Write its mass density as . A coaxial shell of radius and thickness has mass . ThusA hollow cylinder would have a different moment of inertia; uniform solid density is the intended assumption.
Let measure the centre's displacement uphill from its initial position, and choose signed angular velocity so that uphill rolling without slipping has . Let be the signed contact force uphill. The translation and rotation equations areThe minus sign in the torque equation follows from the chosen rolling sense: uphill contact force opposes the positive spin. Under rolling without slipping, . Eliminating givesUsing and , the no-slip motion and maximum vertical rise areIndeed the centre turns at , reaching , whose vertical component is the boxed height. Conservation of energy independently gives the same answer from initial kinetic energy .
The available static friction is at most . It can supply the required uphill force exactly when . ThereforeInterpret the stated friction magnitude as limiting static friction and as kinetic friction during slip, with the same coefficient. Take , . In the slipping regime the contact point moves downhill relative to the slope, so kinetic friction acts uphill. To verify this direction rather than assume it unchecked, solve with . Define . The result isThe centre's speed is , with the sign of specifying ascent or descent. The contact point's relative velocity isThus the assumed uphill kinetic friction is consistent throughout both ascent and descent, including when the centre's velocity changes sign. There is no later return to rolling without slipping before reaching the bottom. This is the characteristic slipping solid cylinder on an incline regime.
The centre turns at , givingThe formulas apply up to the positive return time . Substitution into the signed velocity and angular velocity givesThe return spin can have either sign and vanishes at . It reverses when , although the contact point still slips downhill. The unchanged centre speed does not mean that no energy was dissipated: the rotational kinetic energy has decreased. Indeed integrating the frictional power giveswhich agrees with the difference of the initial and final rotational kinetic energies.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 ia Paper 4 3A Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Choose the positive direction along the incoming car's velocity. Treat each car as a translating body, take , and neglect external impulse, rotation and energy losses during the short elastic collision. If are the final signed velocities, conservation of momentum and conservation of energy giveFactoring the second relation and using the first gives on the collision branch. The other algebraic branch, , describes no impulse and cannot describe separating bodies after contact. Solving the collision branch yieldsFor the first car rebounds and the second moves forwards. At the first stops and the second takes its original velocity. For both move forwards, with , so they separate. In the limits and , the first car's velocity approaches and , respectively.
For the deformable car, take at first contact. The resisting force does negative work. The work-energy theorem therefore givesAt the first stop , whence . The speed bound ensures that this right-hand side is positive, so squaring introduces no extraneous solution. The stopping compression isFor this lies strictly between and , as required before complete crushing. The coefficient in the stipulated force law is taken in its stated normalization.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 ia Paper 4 9A Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
Use a translating accelerated reference frame; its axes do not rotate. If is the block's position relative to the table, then its inertial position is . Its relative velocity is and its inertial acceleration is . Let be the upward normal force. During contact , and the linear tangential resistance givesThese are Newton's second law transformed to the table's reference frame; the extra terms arise from the table's acceleration. The last equation gives while contact persists. If contact is lost, both the contact resistance and vanish, and free flight must be described by the corresponding gravity-only equations.
For , assume and put . Seek a periodic particular solution . Substitution into the first differential equation givesSolving yieldsThe homogeneous solutions are a constant and a multiple of . Choose the phase with . Then and , soAlso . The decaying transients leave the stated steady orbit. Positive damping is essential to this late-time assertion; for an additional constant drift may persist.
No attractive contact force is available, so cannot be negative. Over a whole oscillation its minimum is . Thus strictly positive contact loading throughout requires , or the printed form with taken as a nonnegative vertical amplitude. If , contact cannot persist: it would require during part of the cycle. At equality, vanishes only at isolated instants and the ideal constrained motion can still remain in contact. Hence the strict inequality characterizes positive loading; mere nonnegative contact permits the marginal equality case.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 64 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Take for inward radial velocity, and assume a constant specific-heat ratio . The isentropic flow has and adiabatic sound speed . Steady spherical mass conservation and the radial Euler equation for fluid motion giveEliminating the mass density derivative gives , orDifferentiating gives the corresponding sound speed equation:At a smooth sonic point, . A finite derivative requires the numerator of the flow equation to vanish too. ThusThis regularity requirement concerns a smooth transonic branch, rather than an arbitrary singular solution reaching unit Mach number.
Integrating the momentum equation using the specific enthalpy yields the Bernoulli equationFor a finite positive mass accretion rate, its large-radius solution hasThese expressions satisfy both the flow equations asymptotically and show and . In particular agrees with the first boxed equation. Combining the Bernoulli equation with sonic regularity additionally gives , so a finite positive sonic point occurs in the range identified below.
For the small-radius inward free fall branch, neglecting enthalpy against in the Bernoulli equation predicts . The continuity equation then fixes , and consequently . The neglected-to-leading ratio isIt tends to zero precisely whenThis makes the assumed supersonic flow and leading free fall self-consistent. At equality, the ratio is of constant order rather than vanishing; above it, the proposed asymptotic balance fails. The isothermal limit also permits free fall, with logarithmic rather than power-law enthalpy.
For the stellar funnel, write the magnetic scalar potential as , where and . Its magnetic dipole field has and , so a magnetic-field-line equation isThe edge of the polar flux tube meets the stellar surface at . Thus, near the pole, , and its transverse radius is . This proves the dipolar flux-tube area lawEquivalently magnetic flux conservation gives and . The stipulated small cross section keeps the tube close to the polar axis, where its direction is approximately radial; the approximation is not valid all the way to arbitrarily large .
Outside the star the prescribed field is a gradient, hence and . Its Lorentz force density is therefore . The magnetic-pressure and magnetic-tension parts cancel in this exact current-free dipole. Field-aligned velocity also has , consistent with a steady prescribed field. The following calculation uses the narrow polar funnel approximation.
Now steady mass conservation reads . With , replace the spherical factor 2 by 3:The Bernoulli equation is unchanged because the magnetic field supplies no work or force. On a gravity-dominated free fall branch, , but and . HenceThe same bound follows from regular transonic accretion in a power-law tube: and the reservoir-matched Bernoulli equation gives . The stellar surface cuts off the mathematical small- limit; the criterion refers to a funnel that becomes gravity dominated and crosses its sonic point before reaching that surface.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 64 2 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
The equilibrium isothermal equation of state is . Hydrostatic equilibrium gives , henceHere is assumed. This is the same local harmonic-gravity balance as isothermal vertical structure in stellar gravity.
For , this equilibrium is stably stratified under adiabatic fluid perturbations. Its squared buoyancy frequency isA general perturbation can therefore support acoustic waves restored by compression and internal gravity waves restored by buoyancy, with nonoscillatory entropy or vortical disturbances also possible. The prescribed velocity is purely vertical and horizontally uniform. It describes vertical acoustic waves; it does not contain the horizontally varying circulation required for an oscillatory internal-gravity branch. For zero horizontal wavenumber, that branch has zero frequency. An isothermal equilibrium must not be confused with an isothermal perturbation: the latter would remove the buoyancy restoring force.
Introduce the fluid Lagrangian displacement , so . Use for fluid Eulerian perturbations and for fluid Lagrangian perturbations. The continuity equation and the adiabatic relation areThe fixed external gravitational potential is not perturbed. The vertical linearized Euler equations consequently giveSubstituting the preceding relations, and using and , reduces its right-hand side toSince and , the same equation holds for :The rigid fixed base supplies the essential condition . At infinity the condition is finite kinetic energy, not bounded velocity amplitude; a polynomial can grow while the Gaussian mass density makes its energy finite.
Put and . The equation becomes the Hermite differential equation in its probabilists' convention,For , its recurrence isThe base condition makes and therefore every even coefficient zero. An odd series terminates at degree when . It remains to prove that a nonterminating odd solution cannot have finite energy; termination alone would not establish the requested exhaustion of modes.
For that purpose, set . The finite-energy condition is , and its equation isBecause the coefficients are even and the solution is odd at the base, extend oddly to the whole real line. Define lowering and raising operatorsIntegration by parts gives , so . These identities apply to the square-integrable solution: multiplying its equation by a compactly cut off conjugate and taking larger cutoffs bounds and in , and removes the endpoint terms. The same argument applies to each lowered eigenfunction.
If is not a nonnegative integer, repeatedly apply . Each application lowers by one and remains nonzero whenever its current value is positive, by the norm identity. After finitely many applications it would yield a nonzero square-integrable eigenfunction with negative , contradicting that identity. Thus is a nonnegative integer. At , gives , which is even. Lowering reverses parity, so an initially odd eigenfunction can reach this even ground state only if is odd. Consequently . The recurrence then terminates and uniquely determines the odd solution from .
The complete adiabatic vertical modes of a Gaussian atmosphere are thereforeHere is the Probabilists' Hermite polynomial. For example the first shapes are , , and , with frequencies squared , , and . Either sign of each real frequency gives a time-harmonic solution. Gaussian moments make every displayed polynomial have finite kinetic energy. Without the fixed-base condition, finite energy alone would also admit even polynomials, which is why that condition is necessary.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 64 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let denote the Eulerian perturbation of a fluid variable that is the pressure amplitude, and keep constant. The linearized Euler equations and incompressible flow constraint areThe last equation gives . Substituting it into the first yieldsDifferentiating this formula and using the vertical momentum equation produces the Rayleigh equation for inviscid shear flow:For a growing normal mode, is nonreal, so never vanishes on the real axis. In each open region the base velocity is constant or linear and ; therefore . Decay away from the layer selects above and below, while both exponentials are retained inside. Conveniently normalize these asThese are the spatially localized discrete modes relevant to instability, rather than all possible generalized neutral disturbances at a critical layer in a shear flow.
At each corner is continuous and jumps. The two sides have the same normal velocity and normal stress: there is no membrane, density jump or singular external force supplying a pressure jump. Thus and must be continuous. The pressure formula proves the required continuity of . This is pressure matching at a piecewise-linear shear interface; it does not require to be continuous. Equivalently integrating the Rayleigh equation for inviscid shear flow through a corner gives .
Write , , and . Continuity of normal velocity givesAt , the outside derivatives are , , while the inside derivatives are , . Hence pressure matching reduces toSimilarly at , the outside derivative is and the inside derivative is . Matching givesThe two equations can be written asA nonzero mode therefore requiresThis is the dispersion relation for the unbounded piecewise-linear shear layer.
With the phase convention , positive gives exponential temporal growth. Since the displayed is real, a growing/decaying pair occurs precisely whenFor , by the strict exponential tangent inequality, so every such mode is unstable. For , define . Its derivative is positive, while and . There is consequently exactly one root in that interval, andAt the cutoff the discrete roots merge at ; above it the roots are real and have no exponential growth. The physical wavelengths in the unstable band satisfy .
This is a finite-thickness Kelvin-Helmholtz instability: long disturbances roll up the layer and draw kinetic energy from its shear. The off-diagonal terms describe coupling of the two vorticity discontinuities. Short disturbances decay across the layer before strongly coupling its edges and are neutral. Indeed at the two phase speeds approach the velocities of the separated edges. At , expansion of the numerator gives , recovering the vortex sheet result ; the growth rate then behaves as .
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 64 4 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
For the basic axisymmetric flow, . The steady radial Euler equation for fluid motion gives ; the other components give . Thus, in the absence of an additional body force,The additive constant is undetermined without an imposed reference pressure; the rigid boundary does not prescribe a uniform boundary pressure. Its shape is fixed by the container rather than by a free-surface pressure condition.
Let be the small velocity amplitudes and the pressure amplitude. Linearizing the cylindrical Euler equations for an inviscid fluid about uniform rotation, the material derivative is . The intrinsic frequency for the stated phase convention is thereforeThe radial and azimuthal curvature terms supply the Coriolis acceleration terms, givingFor , solving these equations givesThe incompressible flow constraint isOn substitution, the terms proportional to cancel. The remaining equation iswhich provesThis is the pressure equation for inertial modes in a rigid rotating sphere. The exceptional frequencies used in the divisions must instead be treated in the original momentum system; they are not needed for the mode below.
A fixed rigid sphere is impermeable, so its normal velocity vanishes:Using the solved amplitudes and multiplying by givesEquivalently divide by for . Smoothness means tangential slip is allowed: there is no no-slip condition on these inviscid normal modes. Nor is there a condition , since the wall supplies the required varying normal pressure.
For an axisymmetric oscillation, and . Write . For the radial and vertical operators areThe interior pressure equation therefore requiresThe boundary equation becomesSubstituting , this polynomial must vanish for every boundary height. Its constant and coefficients consequently giveTogether with the interior relation the latter condition is . A nontrivial nonsingular oscillatory solution needs : if and , the other equations force . Hence , givingThe cubic axisymmetric inertial mode of a rigid sphere is explicitlyIts cubic pressure is regular at the axis and centre, and its reconstructed velocity is divergence free and tangent to the sphere by the preceding identities. The frequency lies within the inertial wave band : Coriolis acceleration, rather than compression or a moving surface, supplies the restoring dynamics. The amplitude is arbitrary in this linear problem.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2004 iii Paper 73 1 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Write and , with . For the profiles below take , so agrees with the stated parameter; changing the sign of reverses the balanced meridional velocity but not the height profile. The linearized shallow water equations areTaking the horizontal curl gives . Hence the signed linear shallow-water potential vorticity anomaly is conserved:The initial data are independent of , so the solution remains independent of and . Differentiating continuity in time and using the zonal momentum equation gives
For a horizontal Fourier mode with wavenumber , put . The solution splits into a balanced component and inertia-gravity waves:These waves have frequencies , phase velocity , and group velocity , whose magnitude is less than . They have zero perturbation potential vorticity and carry the unbalanced part away. On the unbounded line, the localized difference between the initial and balanced profiles disperses, leaving a local steady limit. No damping is needed for this local geostrophic adjustment; in a closed periodic domain, undamped waves would persist and a literal pointwise steady limit would generally not exist.
The bounded steady height satisfies the modified Helmholtz equationOddness removes the even homogeneous solution in the central region. The exterior solution is bounded and tends to the appropriate plateau. Matching both height and its first derivative at gives the geostrophic adjustment of a finite-width height ramp:For example, writing the interior solution as , matching its slope to the decaying exterior at gives .
The steady meridional momentum equation gives , and the zonal equation gives the geostrophic balance . ThusThe height is odd and monotone, and the meridional current is even, with maximum for .
For , the initial ramp is narrow compared with the Rossby deformation radius. To leading order,Near the origin the height rises with slope , rather than ; the current has width and peak . For , the central height remains nearly and the central velocity nearly . Around each end of the ramp there is a matching layer of width , with height correction of order ; the exterior current decays over the same width. At the current is approximately half its central value. In both limits the zonal current is zero. These are the broad rotational adjustment of a narrow disturbance and the weak edge adjustment of a broad disturbance, respectively.
Balanced height and velocity profiles for narrow and wide initial ramps, with scales shown on each axis
. Details. Use the energy normalization specified for the height energy: the linear total energy density is . The linear equations implyFor , let the potential energy loss mean the positive difference between the initial and final values, per unit transverse length. Although both absolute potential energies diverge on the infinite line, their difference is finite. The leading step approximation givesThe finite ramp changes this leading expression by a relative correction. The initial kinetic energy is zero and the final gain isThe remainder is energy carried away by the outgoing inertia-gravity waves. This explains why the ratio is less than one without invoking dissipation: conservation of energy includes the waves, not only the final balanced flow.
