Part IA, 2014
Part IA, 2014
Jump to course
Paper 1, Section I,
commentFind the radius of convergence of the following power series: (i) ; (ii) .
Paper 1, Section I, D
commentShow that every sequence of real numbers contains a monotone subsequence.
Paper 1, Section II, D
comment(a) Show that for all ,
stating carefully what properties of sin you are using.
Show that the series converges absolutely for all .
(b) Let be a decreasing sequence of positive real numbers tending to zero. Show that for not a multiple of , the series
converges.
Hence, or otherwise, show that converges for all .
Paper 1, Section II, E
comment(i) Prove Taylor's Theorem for a function differentiable times, in the following form: for every there exists with such that
[You may assume Rolle's Theorem and the Mean Value Theorem; other results should be proved.]
(ii) The function is twice differentiable, and satisfies the differential equation with . Show that is infinitely differentiable. Write down its Taylor series at the origin, and prove that it converges to at every point. Hence or otherwise show that for any , the series
converges to .
Paper 1, Section II, E
comment(i) State the Mean Value Theorem. Use it to show that if is a differentiable function whose derivative is identically zero, then is constant.
(ii) Let be a function and a real number such that for all ,
Show that is continuous. Show moreover that if then is constant.
(iii) Let be continuous, and differentiable on . Assume also that the right derivative of at exists; that is, the limit
exists. Show that for any there exists satisfying
[You should not assume that is continuous.]
Paper 1, Section II, F
commentDefine what it means for a function to be (Riemann) integrable. Prove that is integrable whenever it is
(a) continuous,
(b) monotonic.
Let be an enumeration of all rational numbers in . Define a function by ,
where
Show that has a point of discontinuity in every interval .
Is integrable? [Justify your answer.]
Paper 2, Section I, B
commentConsider the ordinary differential equation
State an equation to be satisfied by and that ensures that equation is exact. In this case, express the general solution of equation in terms of a function which should be defined in terms of and .
Consider the equation
satisfying the boundary condition . Find an explicit relation between and .
Paper 2, Section I, B
commentThe following equation arises in the theory of elastic beams:
where is a real valued function.
By using the change of variables
find the general solution of the above equation.
Paper 2, Section II, B
commentThe so-called "shallow water theory" is characterised by the equations
where denotes the gravitational constant, the constant denotes the undisturbed depth of the water, denotes the speed in the -direction, and denotes the elevation of the water.
(i) Assuming that and and their gradients are small in some appropriate dimensional considerations, show that satisfies the wave equation
where the constant should be determined in terms of and .
(ii) Using the change of variables
show that the general solution of satisfying the initial conditions
is given by
where
Simplify the above to find in terms of and .
(iii) Find in the particular case that
where denotes the Heaviside step function.
Describe in words this solution.
Paper 2, Section II, B
commentUse the transformation
where is a constant, to map the Ricatti equation
to a linear equation.
Using the above result, as well as the change of variables , solve the boundary value problem
where is a positive constant. What is the value of for which the solution is singular?
Paper 2, Section II, B
commentConsider the damped pendulum equation
where is a positive constant. The energy , which is the sum of the kinetic energy and the potential energy, is defined by
(i) Verify that is a decreasing function.
(ii) Assuming that is sufficiently small, so that terms of order can be neglected, find an approximation for the general solution of in terms of two arbitrary constants. Discuss the dependence of this approximate solution on .
(iii) By rewriting as a system of equations for and , find all stationary points of and discuss their nature for all , except .
(iv) Draw the phase plane curves for the particular case .
Paper 2, Section II, B
comment(a) Let be a solution of the equation
Assuming that the second linearly independent solution takes the form , derive an ordinary differential equation for .
(b) Consider the equation
By inspection or otherwise, find an explicit solution of this equation. Use the result in (a) to find the solution satisfying the conditions
Paper 4, Section I,
commentA particle of mass has charge and moves in a constant magnetic field B. Show that the particle's path describes a helix. In which direction is the axis of the helix, and what is the particle's rotational angular frequency about that axis?
Paper 4, Section I,
commentWhat is a 4-vector? Define the inner product of two 4-vectors and give the meanings of the terms timelike, null and spacelike. How do the four components of a 4-vector change under a Lorentz transformation of speed ? [Without loss of generality, you may take the velocity of the transformation to be along the positive -axis.]
Show that a 4-vector that is timelike in one frame of reference is also timelike in a second frame of reference related by a Lorentz transformation. [Again, you may without loss of generality take the velocity of the transformation to be along the positive -axis.]
Show that any null 4-vector may be written in the form where is real and is a unit 3-vector. Given any two null 4-vectors that are future-pointing, that is, which have positive time-components, show that their sum is either null or timelike.
Paper 4, Section II, C
commentDefine the 4-momentum of a particle and describe briefly the principle of conservation of 4-momentum.
A photon of angular frequency is absorbed by a particle of rest mass that is stationary in the laboratory frame of reference. The particle then splits into two equal particles, each of rest mass .
Find the maximum possible value of as a function of . Verify that as , this maximum value tends to . For general , show that when the maximum value of is achieved, the resulting particles are each travelling at speed in the laboratory frame.
Paper 4, Section II, C
commentA thin flat disc of radius has density (mass per unit area) where are plane polar coordinates on the disc and is a constant. The disc is free to rotate about a light, thin rod that is rigidly fixed in space, passing through the centre of the disc orthogonal to it. Find the moment of inertia of the disc about the rod.
The section of the disc lying in is cut out and removed. Starting from rest, a constant torque is applied to the remaining part of the disc until its angular speed about the axis reaches . Show that this takes a time
After this time, no further torque is applied and the partial disc continues to rotate at constant angular speed . Given that the total mass of the partial disc is , where is a constant that you need not determine, find the position of the centre of mass, and hence its acceleration. From where does the force required to produce this acceleration arise?
Paper 4, Section II, C
commentA reference frame rotates with constant angular velocity relative to an inertial frame that has the same origin as . A particle of mass at position vector is subject to a force . Derive the equation of motion for the particle in .
A marble moves on a smooth plane which is inclined at an angle to the horizontal. The whole plane rotates at constant angular speed about a vertical axis through a point fixed in the plane. Coordinates are defined with respect to axes fixed in the plane: horizontal and up the line of greatest slope in the plane. Ensuring that you account for the normal reaction force, show that the motion of the marble obeys
By considering the marble's kinetic energy as measured on the plane in the rotating frame, or otherwise, find a constant of the motion.
[You may assume that the marble never leaves the plane.]
Paper 4, Section II, C
commentA rocket of mass , which includes the mass of its fuel and everything on board, moves through free space in a straight line at speed . When its engines are operational, they burn fuel at a constant mass rate and eject the waste gases behind the rocket at a constant speed relative to the rocket. Obtain the rocket equation
The rocket is initially at rest in a cloud of space dust which is also at rest. The engines are started and, as the rocket travels through the cloud, it collects dust which it stores on board for research purposes. The mass of dust collected in a time is given by , where is the distance travelled in that time and is a constant. Obtain the new equations
By eliminating , or otherwise, obtain the relationship
where is the initial mass of the rocket and .
If , show that the fuel will be exhausted before the speed of the rocket can reach . Comment on the case when , giving a physical interpretation of your answer.
Paper 3, Section I, D
commentLet be a group, and suppose the centre of is trivial. If divides , show that has a non-trivial conjugacy class whose order is prime to .
Paper 3, Section I, D
commentLet be the rational numbers, with addition as the group operation. Let be non-zero elements of , and let be the subgroup they generate. Show that is isomorphic to .
Find non-zero elements which generate a subgroup that is not isomorphic to .
Paper 3, Section II, D
comment(a) Let be a group, and a subgroup of . Define what it means for to be normal in , and show that if is normal then naturally has the structure of a group.
(b) For each of (i)-(iii) below, give an example of a non-trivial finite group and non-trivial normal subgroup satisfying the stated properties.
(i) .
(ii) There is no group homomorphism such that the composite is the identity.
(iii) There is a group homomorphism such that the composite is the identity, but the map
is not a group homomorphism.
Show also that for any satisfying (iii), this map is always a bijection.
Paper 3, Section II, D
commentLet be a prime number, and , the group of invertible matrices with entries in the field of integers modulo .
The group acts on by Möbius transformations,
(i) Show that given any distinct there exists such that , and . How many such are there?
(ii) acts on by . Describe the orbits, and for each orbit, determine its stabiliser, and the orders of the orbit and stabiliser.
Paper 3, Section II, D
commentLet be a prime number. Let be a group such that every non-identity element of has order .
(i) Show that if is finite, then for some . [You must prove any theorems that you use.]
(ii) Show that if , and , then .
Hence show that if is abelian, and is finite, then .
(iii) Let be the set of all matrices of the form
where and is the field of integers modulo . Show that every nonidentity element of has order if and only if . [You may assume that is a subgroup of the group of all invertible matrices.]
Paper 3, Section II, D
commentLet be the group of permutations of , and suppose is even, .
Let , and .
(i) Compute the centraliser of , and the orders of the centraliser of and of the centraliser of .
(ii) Now let . Let be the group of all symmetries of the cube, and the set of faces of the cube. Show that the action of on makes isomorphic to the centraliser of in . [Hint: Show that permutes the faces of the cube according to .]
Show that is also isomorphic to the centraliser of in .
Paper 4, Section I,
commentDefine the binomial coefficients , for integers satisfying . Prove directly from your definition that if then
and that for every and ,
Paper 4, Section I, E
commentUse Euclid's algorithm to determine , the greatest common divisor of 203 and 147 , and to express it in the form for integers . Hence find all solutions in integers of the equation .
How many integers are there with and
Paper 4, Section II, E
comment(i) State and prove the Inclusion-Exclusion Principle.
(ii) Let be an integer. Denote by the integers modulo . Let be the set of all functions such that for every . Show that
Paper 4, Section II, E
comment(i) What does it mean to say that a set is countable? Show directly that the set of sequences , with for all , is uncountable.
(ii) Let be any subset of . Show that there exists a bijection such that (the set of even natural numbers) if and only if both and its complement are infinite.
(iii) Let be the binary expansion of . Let be the set of all sequences with such that for infinitely many . Let be the set of all such that for infinitely many . Show that is uncountable.
Paper 4, Section II, E
comment(i) State and prove the Fermat-Euler Theorem.
(ii) Let be an odd prime number, and an integer coprime to . Show that , and that if the congruence has a solution then .
(iii) By arranging the residue classes coprime to into pairs with , or otherwise, show that if the congruence has no solution then
(iv) Show that .
Paper 4, Section II, E
commentWhat does it mean to say that the sequence of real numbers converges to the limit What does it mean to say that the series converges to ?
Let and be convergent series of positive real numbers. Suppose that is a sequence of positive real numbers such that for every , either or . Show that is convergent.
Show that is convergent, and that is divergent if .
Let be a sequence of positive real numbers such that is convergent. Show that is convergent. Determine (with proof or counterexample) whether or not the converse statement holds.
Paper 2, Section I, F
commentConsider independent discrete random variables and assume exists for all .
Show that
If the are also positive, show that
Paper 2, Section I, F
commentConsider a particle situated at the origin of . At successive times a direction is chosen independently by picking an angle uniformly at random in the interval , and the particle then moves an Euclidean unit length in this direction. Find the expected squared Euclidean distance of the particle from the origin after such movements.
Paper 2, Section II, 9F
commentState the axioms of probability.
State and prove Boole's inequality.
Suppose you toss a sequence of coins, the -th of which comes up heads with probability , where . Calculate the probability of the event that infinitely many heads occur.
Suppose you repeatedly and independently roll a pair of fair dice and each time record the sum of the dice. What is the probability that an outcome of 5 appears before an outcome of 7 ? Justify your answer.
Paper 2, Section II, F
commentGive the definition of an exponential random variable with parameter . Show that is memoryless.
Now let be independent exponential random variables, each with parameter . Find the probability density function of the random variable and the probability .
Suppose the random variables are independent and each has probability density function given by
Find the probability density function of [You may use standard results without proof provided they are clearly stated.]
Paper 2, Section II, F
commentFor any function and random variables , the "tower property" of conditional expectations is
Provide a proof of this property when both are discrete.
Let be a sequence of independent uniform -random variables. For find the expected number of 's needed such that their sum exceeds , that is, find where
[Hint: Write
Paper 2, Section II, F
commentDefine what it means for a random variable to have a Poisson distribution, and find its moment generating function.
Suppose are independent Poisson random variables with parameters . Find the distribution of .
If are independent Poisson random variables with parameter , find the distribution of . Hence or otherwise, find the limit of the real sequence
[Standard results may be used without proof provided they are clearly stated.]
Paper 3, Section I, A
commentLet be a vector field defined everywhere on the domain .
(a) Suppose that has a potential such that for . Show that
for any smooth path from a to in . Show further that necessarily on .
(b) State a condition for which ensures that implies is pathindependent.
(c) Compute the line integral for the vector field
where denotes the anti-clockwise path around the unit circle in the -plane. Compute and comment on your result in the light of (b).
Paper 3, Section I, A
comment(a) For and , show that
(b) Use index notation and your result in (a), or otherwise, to compute
(i) , and
(ii) for .
(c) Show that for each there is, up to an arbitrary constant, just one vector field of the form such that everywhere on , and determine .
Paper 3, Section II, 11A
comment(i) Starting with Poisson's equation in ,
derive Gauss' flux theorem
for and for any volume .
(ii) Let
Show that if is the sphere , and that if bounds a volume that does not contain the origin.
(iii) Show that the electric field defined by
satisfies
where is a surface bounding a closed volume and , and where the electric charge and permittivity of free space are constants. This is Gauss' law for a point electric charge.
(iv) Assume that is spherically symmetric around the origin, i.e., it is a function only of . Assume that is also spherically symmetric. Show that depends only on the values of inside the sphere with radius but not on the values of outside this sphere.
Paper 3, Section II, A
comment(a) Show that any rank 2 tensor can be written uniquely as a sum of two rank 2 tensors and where is symmetric and is antisymmetric.
(b) Assume that the rank 2 tensor is invariant under any rotation about the -axis, as well as under a rotation of angle about any axis in the -plane through the origin.
(i) Show that there exist such that can be written as
(ii) Is there some proper subgroup of the rotations specified above for which the result still holds if the invariance of is restricted to this subgroup? If so, specify the smallest such subgroup.
(c) The array of numbers is such that is a vector for any symmetric matrix .
(i) By writing as a sum of and with and , show that is a rank 3 tensor. [You may assume without proof the Quotient Theorem for tensors.]
(ii) Does necessarily have to be a tensor? Justify your answer.
Paper 3, Section II, A
comment(a) State Stokes' Theorem for a surface with boundary .
(b) Let be the surface in given by where . Sketch the surface and find the surface element with respect to the Cartesian coordinates and .
(c) Compute for the vector field
and verify Stokes' Theorem for on the surface .
Paper 3, Section II, A
commentThe surface in is given by .
(a) Show that the vector field
is tangent to the surface everywhere.
(b) Show that the surface integral is a constant independent of for any surface which is a subset of , and determine this constant.
(c) The volume in is bounded by the surface and by the cylinder . Sketch and compute the volume integral
directly by integrating over .
(d) Use the Divergence Theorem to verify the result you obtained in part (b) for the integral , where is the portion of lying in .
Paper 1, Section I, 1B
comment(a) Let
(i) Compute .
(ii) Find all complex numbers such that .
(b) Find all the solutions of the equation
(c) Let . Show that the equation of any line, and of any circle, may be written respectively as
for some complex and real .
Paper 1, Section I, 2A
comment(a) What is meant by an eigenvector and the corresponding eigenvalue of a matrix ?
(b) Let be the matrix
Find the eigenvalues and the corresponding eigenspaces of and determine whether or not is diagonalisable.
Paper 1, Section II,
commentLet be the linear map
where and are real constants. Write down the matrix of with respect to the standard basis of and show that .
Let be the invertible map
and define a linear map by . Find the image of each of the standard basis vectors of under both and . Hence, or otherwise, find the matrix of with respect to the standard basis of and verify that .
Paper 1, Section II, 5B
comment(i) For vectors , show that
Show that the plane and the line , where , intersect at the point
and only at that point. What happens if ?
(ii) Explain why the distance between the planes and is , where is a unit vector.
(iii) Find the shortest distance between the lines and where . [You may wish to consider two appropriately chosen planes and use the result of part (ii).]
Paper 1, Section II, A
commentLet be a real symmetric matrix.
(i) Show that all eigenvalues of are real, and that the eigenvectors of with respect to different eigenvalues are orthogonal. Assuming that any real symmetric matrix can be diagonalised, show that there exists an orthonormal basis of eigenvectors of .
(ii) Consider the linear system
Show that this system has a solution if and only if for every vector in the kernel of . Let be such a solution. Given an eigenvector of with non-zero eigenvalue, determine the component of in the direction of this eigenvector. Use this result to find the general solution of the linear system, in the form
Paper 1, Section II, C
commentLet and be complex matrices.
(i) The commutator of and is defined to be
Show that and for . Show further that the trace of vanishes.
(ii) A skew-Hermitian matrix is one which satisfies , where denotes the Hermitian conjugate. Show that if and are skew-Hermitian then so is .
(iii) Let be the linear map from to the set of complex matrices given by
where
Prove that for any is traceless and skew-Hermitian. By considering pairs such as , or otherwise, show that for ,
(iv) Using the result of part (iii), or otherwise, prove that if is a traceless skewHermitian matrix then there exist matrices such that . [You may use geometrical properties of vectors in without proof.]