A10289W1

FIRST PUBLIC EXAMINATION

Trinity Term

Preliminary Examination in Physics

Paper CP4: MATHEMATICAL METHODS 2

also

Preliminary Examination in Physics and Philosophy

Thursday 9 June 2022, 2.30 pm – 5.00 pm

Time allowed: 2 21 hours

Answer all of Section A and three questions from Section B.

Start the answer to each question on a new page.

The use of approved calculators is permitted.

A list of physical constants, mathematical formulae

and conversion factors accompanies this paper.

The numbers in the margin indicate the weight that the Moderators expect to
assign to each part of the question.

Do NOT turn over until told that you may do so.

1
 Section A

1. Find the limit as i) x → 0 and ii) x → ∞ of the function

1 ln x
f (x) = + .
x sin x − x
[4]

1
2. Find the derivative of f (x) = x2 + 2 x
. [3]

3. Consider the functions

sin y x
f1 (x, y) = +e cos2 y, f2 (x, y) = x sin y+ex cos 2y, f3 (x, y) = ln x cos y−ex sin 2y.
x
Two of these functions can be combined to form an exact differential df of a function
f (x, y) as follows:
df = fi (x, y)dx + fj (x, y)dy.
Identify these two functions and determine the corresponding function f , explaining
your reasoning. [5]

2
√
(x + 2y)
4. Determine the first order
 Taylor
 expansion of the function f (x, y) = e
1
about the point (x0 , y0 ) = √12 , 2√ 2
. Does the error in this approximation to f grow
fastest along the x or the y axis? [5]

ZZ
5. For F = (−x, y, z), evaluate F · dS over the surface of the plane x + y + 2z = 4
in the octant where x, y and z are all positive. [5]

6. Let fX,Y (x, y) = A sin x cos y define a joint probability density function normalised
over the region bounded by the lines y = π2 − x, y = π2 and x = π2 . Find the value of the
1
constant A and hence the expected value of the function g(x) = over this region. [7]
sin x

7. A tube with an elliptical cross-section, defined by x2 + 4z 2 = 4, is intersected

by the planes y + z = 1 and z = y + 1. Find the volume of the enclosed region, by
transforming to coordinates (r, θ, y) given by x = 2r cos θ and z = r sin θ. [8]

8. An isotropic dispersion relation ω(k) has the property that k n ω 2 is constant. For
what value of n will the energy associated with a wave packet propagate in the same
direction as the individual peaks and troughs but with twice the speed? [3]

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 Section B

9. (a) Show that the identity

∇ × (a × r) = (r · ∇)a − (a · ∇)r + a(∇ · r) − r(∇ · a)

holds in the specific case that a is a constant vector and r is the position vector. Is a × r
a conservative field? [6]

Z (b) i) State Stokes’ Theorem, and show that the line integral from A to B given
∂P ∂Q
by P (x, y) dx + Q(x, y) dy is independent of path if = .
L ∂y ∂x [4]
ii) Now consider the functions
y y 1 y
P = yf (xy) − g , Q = xf (xy) + g ,
x2 x x x
defined within the region x > 0. For general functions f and g, show that a function
φ(x, y) can be uniquely defined by the line integral
Z (x,y)
φ(x, y) = P (x0 , y 0 ) dx0 + Q(x0 , y 0 ) dy 0 .
(1,1)

Show that φ can be separated into integrals of f and g as follows

Z xy Z y/x
φ(x, y) = f (s) ds + g(t) dt,
1 1

and hence determine the difference in φ(x, y) between the points (a, b) and (ab, b2 ), given
that f (s) = 1/s2 . [10]

10. Consider the function z(x, y) = xy x2 − 4 y 2 − 4 .

(a) Determine the stationary points of z. Sketch a contour plot of z in the region
of the (x, y) plane where x, y ≥ 0. Indicate on your sketch any maxima, minima, saddle
points and zeros, and also the direction of the gradient of z. [9]
(b) For two-dimensional functions, the divergence theorem can be written as
ZZ I I
∇ · F dA = F · n̂ dl = M dy − N dx,
A L L

where L is a curve enclosing the area A, n̂ is the unit vector in the (x, y) plane perpen-
dicular to L and F = (M, N ). Verify this theorem by evaluating both the area and line
integrals over the region where 0 ≤ x ≤ 2 and 0 ≤ y ≤ 2 in the case that F = ∇z(x, y).
[11]

A10289W1 3 [Turn over]

 11. Consider a double pendulum, consisting of two masses suspended by identical
massless rods of length l. The upper and lower masses are m and αm respectively,
where α is a constant. With x1 and x2 denoting the horizontal displacements of the
upper and lower masses respectively, the equations of motion for small displacements
can be written as
d2 x1 g g d2 x2 g
2
= −(1 + α) x1 + α (x2 − x1 ) 2
= −α (x2 − x1 ).
dt l l dt l

(a) Derive an expression for the frequencies of the normal modes of the system in
terms of the constant α. [6]
(b) For the case where α = 1 calculate the ratio of the amplitudes of the two
displacements, and hence sketch the motion of the two masses. [6]
(c) Now assume that α  1 so that quadratic terms in α can be neglected.
Determine the value that α should take for the lower frequency mode to have one
quarter of the frequency of a single pendulum of length l and mass m. [4]
(d) Describe qualitatively what happens to the higher-frequency normal mode as
α → 0. [4]

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 12. A uniform string of length L is fixed at all times at x = 0 and x = L. At time
t = 0 the string has no displacement but is struck such that it acquires a transverse
velocity V (x), and thereafter it vibrates according to the wave equation

∂ 2 y(x, t) 2
2 ∂ y(x, t)
= c ,
∂t2 ∂x2
where c2 is constant.
(a) Show that this equation supports separable solutions and hence determine the
frequencies of the normal modes. [5]
(b) Write down the general solution for the displacement of the string y(x, t) and
show that this can be written as a superposition of travelling waves. [4]
(c) Now consider the initial velocity to be given by

πx  πx  2V0 3πx
V (x) = V0 sin 1 + cos + sin ,
L L 3 L
where V0 is a constant. Which of the resulting modes will contribute most to the total
energy of the motion? [2]
(d) Solve the system for the displacement y(x, t) given this initial condition. [4]
(e) Determine the earliest time t > 0 that the string returns to being flat. Will
the displacement of the string ever take the form of a pure sine wave? Explain your
reasoning. [5]

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