Part IA, {{ year }}
Part IA 2017
Paper 1, Section I, F
Part IA, 2017 commentGiven an increasing sequence of non-negative real numbers , let
Prove that if as for some then also as
Paper 1, Section II, F
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) Let be a non-negative and decreasing sequence of real numbers. Prove that converges if and only if converges.
(b) For , prove that converges if and only if .
(c) For any , prove that
(d) The sequence is defined by and for . For any , prove that
Paper 2, Section II,
Part IA, 2017 commentLet and be two solutions of the differential equation
where and are given. Show, using the Wronskian, that
either there exist and , not both zero, such that vanishes for all ,
or given and , there exist and such that satisfies the conditions and .
Find power series and such that an arbitrary solution of the equation
can be written as a linear combination of and .
Paper 2, Section II, C
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) Solve subject to . For which is the solution finite for all ?
Let be a positive constant. By considering the lines for constant , or otherwise, show that any solution of the equation
is of the form for some function .
Solve the equation
subject to for a given function . For which is the solution bounded on ?
(b) By means of the change of variables and for appropriate real numbers , show that the equation
can be transformed into the wave equation
where is defined by . Hence write down the general solution of .
Paper 4, Section I, A
Part IA, 2017 commentConsider a system of particles with masses and position vectors . Write down the definition of the position of the centre of mass of the system. Let be the total kinetic energy of the system. Show that
where is the total mass and is the position vector of particle with respect to .
The particles are connected to form a rigid body which rotates with angular speed about an axis through , where . Show that
where and is the moment of inertia of particle about .
Paper 4, Section I, A
Part IA, 2017 commentA tennis ball of mass is projected vertically upwards with initial speed and reaches its highest point at time . In addition to uniform gravity, the ball experiences air resistance, which produces a frictional force of magnitude , where is the ball's speed and is a positive constant. Show by dimensional analysis that can be written in the form
for some function of a dimensionless quantity .
Use the equation of motion of the ball to find .
Paper 4, Section II, A
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) A photon with energy in the laboratory frame collides with an electron of rest mass that is initially at rest in the laboratory frame. As a result of the collision the photon is deflected through an angle as measured in the laboratory frame and its energy changes to .
Derive an expression for in terms of and .
(b) A deuterium atom with rest mass and energy in the laboratory frame collides with another deuterium atom that is initially at rest in the laboratory frame. The result of this collision is a proton of rest mass and energy , and a tritium atom of rest mass . Show that, if the proton is emitted perpendicular to the incoming trajectory of the deuterium atom as measured in the laboratory frame, then
Paper 4, Section II, A
Part IA, 2017 commentA particle of unit mass moves under the influence of a central force. By considering the components of the acceleration in polar coordinates prove that the magnitude of the angular momentum is conserved. [You may use . ]
Now suppose that the central force is derived from the potential , where is a constant.
(a) Show that the total energy of the particle can be written in the form
Sketch in the cases and .
(b) The particle is projected from a very large distance from the origin with speed and impact parameter . [The impact parameter is the distance of closest approach to the origin in absence of any force.]
(i) In the case , sketch the particle's trajectory and find the shortest distance between the particle and the origin, and the speed of the particle when .
(ii) In the case , sketch the particle's trajectory and find the corresponding shortest distance between the particle and the origin, and the speed of the particle when .
(iii) Find and in terms of and . [In answering part (iii) you should assume that is the same in parts (i) and (ii).]
Paper 4, Section II, A
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) Consider an inertial frame , and a frame which rotates with constant angular velocity relative to . The two frames share a common origin. Identify each term in the equation
(b) A small bead of unit mass can slide without friction on a circular hoop of radius . The hoop is horizontal and rotating with constant angular speed about a fixed vertical axis through a point on its circumference.
(i) Using Cartesian axes in the rotating frame , with origin at and -axis along the diameter of the hoop through , write down the position vector of in terms of and the angle shown in the diagram .
(ii) Working again in the rotating frame, find, in terms of and , an expression for the horizontal component of the force exerted by the hoop on the bead.
(iii) For what value of is the bead in stable equilibrium? Find the frequency of small oscillations of the bead about that point.
Paper 4, Section II, A
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) A rocket moves in a straight line with speed and is subject to no external forces. The rocket is composed of a body of mass and fuel of mass , which is burnt at constant rate and the exhaust is ejected with constant speed relative to the rocket. Show that
Show that the speed of the rocket when all its fuel is burnt is
where and are the speed of the rocket and the mass of the fuel at .
(b) A two-stage rocket moves in a straight line and is subject to no external forces. The rocket is initially at rest. The masses of the bodies of the two stages are and , with , and they initially carry masses and of fuel. Both stages burn fuel at a constant rate when operating and the exhaust is ejected with constant speed relative to the rocket. The first stage operates first, until all its fuel is burnt. The body of the first stage is then detached with negligible force and the second stage ignites.
Find the speed of the second stage when all its fuel is burnt. For compare it with the speed of the rocket in part (a) in the case . Comment on the case .
Paper 3, Section I, E
Part IA, 2017 commentLet be distinct elements of . Write down the Möbius map that sends to , respectively. [Hint: You need to consider four cases.]
Now let be another element of distinct from . Define the cross-ratio in terms of .
Prove that there is a circle or line through and if and only if the cross-ratio is real.
[You may assume without proof that Möbius maps map circles and lines to circles and lines and also that there is a unique circle or line through any three distinct points of
Paper 3, Section I, E
Part IA, 2017 commentWhat does it mean to say that is a normal subgroup of the group ? For a normal subgroup of define the quotient group . [You do not need to verify that is a group.]
State the Isomorphism Theorem.
Let
be the group of invertible upper-triangular real matrices. By considering a suitable homomorphism, show that the subset
of is a normal subgroup of and identify the quotient .
Paper 1, Section I,
Part IA, 2017 commentShow that if the power series converges for some fixed , then it converges absolutely for every satisfying .
Define the radius of convergence of a power series.
Give an example of and an example of such that converges and diverges. [You may assume results about standard series without proof.] Use this to find the radius of convergence of the power series .
Paper 3, Section II, E
Part IA, 2017 commentLet be a normal subgroup of a finite group of prime index .
By considering a suitable homomorphism, show that if is a subgroup of that is not contained in , then is a normal subgroup of of index .
Let be a conjugacy class of that is contained in . Prove that is either a conjugacy class in or is the disjoint union of conjugacy classes in .
[You may use standard theorems without proof.]
Paper 3 , Section II, E
Part IA, 2017 commentState Lagrange's theorem. Show that the order of an element in a finite group is finite and divides the order of .
State Cauchy's theorem.
List all groups of order 8 up to isomorphism. Carefully justify that the groups on your list are pairwise non-isomorphic and that any group of order 8 is isomorphic to one on your list. [You may use without proof the Direct Product Theorem and the description of standard groups in terms of generators satisfying certain relations.]
Paper 3, Section II,
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) Let be a finite group acting on a finite set . State the Orbit-Stabiliser theorem. [Define the terms used.] Prove that
where is the number of distinct orbits of under the action of .
Let , and for , let .
Show that
and deduce that
(b) Let be the group of rotational symmetries of the cube. Show that has 24 elements. [If your proof involves calculating stabilisers, then you must carefully verify such calculations.]
Using , find the number of distinct ways of colouring the faces of the cube red, green and blue, where two colourings are distinct if one cannot be obtained from the other by a rotation of the cube. [A colouring need not use all three colours.]
Paper 3, Section II, E
Part IA, 2017 commentProve that every element of the symmetric group is a product of transpositions. [You may assume without proof that every permutation is the product of disjoint cycles.]
(a) Define the sign of a permutation in , and prove that it is well defined. Define the alternating group .
(b) Show that is generated by the set .
Given , prove that the set if and are coprime.
Paper 4, Section I, D
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) Show that for all positive integers and , either or .
(b) If the positive integers satisfy , show that at least one of and must be divisible by 3 . Can both and be odd?
Paper 4, Section I, D
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) Give the definitions of relation and equivalence relation on a set .
(b) Let be the set of ordered pairs where is a non-empty subset of and . Let be the relation on defined by requiring if the following two conditions hold:
(i) is finite and
(ii) there is a finite set such that for all .
Show that is an equivalence relation on .
Paper 4, Section II, D
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) State and prove the Fermat-Euler Theorem. Deduce Fermat's Little Theorem. State Wilson's Theorem.
(b) Let be an odd prime. Prove that is solvable if and only if .
(c) Let be prime. If and are non-negative integers with , prove that
Paper 4, Section II, D
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) Define what it means for a set to be countable.
(b) Let be an infinite subset of the set of natural numbers . Prove that there is a bijection .
(c) Let be the set of natural numbers whose decimal representation ends with exactly zeros. For example, and . By applying the result of part (b) with , construct a bijection . Deduce that the set of rationals is countable.
(d) Let be an infinite set of positive real numbers. If every sequence of distinct elements with for each has the property that
prove that is countable.
[You may assume without proof that a countable union of countable sets is countable.]
Paper 4, Section II, 7D
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) For positive integers with , show that
giving an explicit formula for . [You may wish to consider the expansion of
(b) For a function and each integer , the function is defined by
For any integer let . Show that and for all and .
Show that for each integer and each ,
Deduce that for each integer ,
Paper 4, Section II, D
Part IA, 2017 commentLet be a sequence of real numbers.
(a) Define what it means for to converge. Define what it means for the series to converge.
Show that if converges, then converges to 0 .
If converges to , show that
(b) Suppose for every . Let and .
Show that does not converge.
Give an example of a sequence with and for every such that converges.
If converges, show that .
Paper 1, Section II, D
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) State the Intermediate Value Theorem.
(b) Define what it means for a function to be differentiable at a point . If is differentiable everywhere on , must be continuous everywhere? Justify your answer.
State the Mean Value Theorem.
(c) Let be differentiable everywhere. Let with .
If , prove that there exists such that . [Hint: consider the function defined by
if and
If additionally , deduce that there exists such that .
Paper 2, Section I, F
Part IA, 2017 commentLet be a non-negative integer-valued random variable such that .
Prove that
[You may use any standard inequality.]
Paper 2, Section I, F
Part IA, 2017 commentLet and be real-valued random variables with joint density function
(i) Find the conditional probability density function of given .
(ii) Find the expectation of given .
Paper 2, Section II, F
Part IA, 2017 commentFor a positive integer , and , let
(a) For fixed and , show that is a probability mass function on and that the corresponding probability distribution has mean and variance .
(b) Let . Show that, for any ,
Show that the right-hand side of is a probability mass function on .
(c) Let and let with . For all , find integers and such that
[You may use the Central Limit Theorem.]
Paper 2, Section II, 10F
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) For any random variable and and , show that
For a standard normal random variable , compute and deduce that
(b) Let . For independent random variables and with distributions and , respectively, compute the probability density functions of and .
Paper 2, Section II, F
Part IA, 2017 commentLet . The Curie-Weiss Model of ferromagnetism is the probability distribution defined as follows. For , define random variables with values in such that the probabilities are given by
where is the normalisation constant
(a) Show that for any .
(b) Show that . [You may use for all without proof. ]
(c) Let . Show that takes values in , and that for each the number of possible values of such that is
Find for any .
Paper 2, Section II, 12F
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) Let . For , let be the first time at which a simple symmetric random walk on with initial position at time 0 hits 0 or . Show . [If you use a recursion relation, you do not need to prove that its solution is unique.]
(b) Let be a simple symmetric random walk on starting at 0 at time . For , let be the first time at which has visited distinct vertices. In particular, . Show for . [You may use without proof that, conditional on , the random variables have the distribution of a simple symmetric random walk starting at .]
(c) For , let be the circle graph consisting of vertices and edges between and where is identified with 0 . Let be a simple random walk on starting at time 0 from 0 . Thus and conditional on the random variable is with equal probability (identifying with ).
The cover time of the simple random walk on is the first time at which the random walk has visited all vertices. Show that .
Paper 3, Section I, B
Part IA, 2017 commentUse the change of variables to evaluate
where is the region of the -plane bounded by the two line segments:
and the curve
Paper 3, Section , B
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) The two sets of basis vectors and (where ) are related by
where are the entries of a rotation matrix. The components of a vector with respect to the two bases are given by
Derive the relationship between and .
(b) Let be a array defined in each (right-handed orthonormal) basis. Using part (a), state and prove the quotient theorem as applied to .
Paper 3, Section II, B
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) The time-dependent vector field is related to the vector field by
where . Show that
(b) The vector fields and satisfy . Show that .
(c) The vector field satisfies . Show that
where
Paper 3, Section II, B
Part IA, 2017 commentBy a suitable choice of in the divergence theorem
show that
for any continuously differentiable function .
For the curved surface of the cone
show that .
Verify that holds for this cone and .
Paper 1, Section II, D
Part IA, 2017 commentLet with and let .
(a) Define what it means for to be continuous at .
is said to have a local minimum at if there is some such that whenever and .
If has a local minimum at and is differentiable at , show that .
(b) is said to be convex if
for every and . If is convex, and , prove that
for every .
Deduce that if is convex then is continuous.
If is convex and has a local minimum at , prove that has a global minimum at , i.e., that for every . [Hint: argue by contradiction.] Must be differentiable at ? Justify your answer.
Paper 3, Section II, B
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) Let be a smooth curve parametrised by arc length . Explain the meaning of the terms in the equation
where is the curvature of the curve.
Now let . Show that there is a scalar (the torsion) such that
and derive an expression involving and for .
(b) Given a (nowhere zero) vector field , the field lines, or integral curves, of are the curves parallel to at each point . Show that the curvature of the field lines of satisfies
where .
(c) Use to find an expression for the curvature at the point of the field lines of .
Paper 3, Section II, B
Part IA, 2017 commentLet be a piecewise smooth closed surface in which is the boundary of a volume .
(a) The smooth functions and defined on satisfy
in and on . By considering an integral of , where , show that .
(b) The smooth function defined on satisfies on , where is the function in part (a) and is constant. Show that
where is the function in part (a). When does equality hold?
(c) The smooth function satisfies
in and on for all . Show that
with equality only if in .
Paper 1, Section I, A
Part IA, 2017 commentConsider with and , where .
(a) Prove algebraically that the modulus of is and that the argument is . Obtain these results geometrically using the Argand diagram.
(b) Obtain corresponding results algebraically and geometrically for .
Paper 1, Section I, C
Part IA, 2017 commentLet and be real matrices.
Show that .
For any square matrix, the matrix exponential is defined by the series
Show that . [You are not required to consider issues of convergence.]
Calculate, in terms of and , the matrices and in the series for the matrix product
Hence obtain a relation between and which necessarily holds if is an orthogonal matrix.
Paper 1, Section II, A
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) Define the vector product of the vectors and in . Use suffix notation to prove that
(b) The vectors are defined by , where and are fixed vectors with and , and is a positive constant.
(i) Write as a linear combination of and . Further, for , express in terms of and . Show, for , that .
(ii) Let be the point with position vector . Show that lie on a pair of straight lines.
(iii) Show that the line segment is perpendicular to . Deduce that is parallel to .
Show that as if , and give a sketch to illustrate the case .
(iv) The straight line through the points and makes an angle with the straight line through the points and . Find in terms of .
Paper 1, Section II, B
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) Show that the eigenvalues of any real square matrix are the same as the eigenvalues of .
The eigenvalues of are and the eigenvalues of are , . Determine, by means of a proof or a counterexample, whether the following are necessary valid: (i) ; (ii) .
(b) The matrix is given by
where and are orthogonal real unit vectors and is the identity matrix.
(i) Show that is an eigenvector of , and write down a linearly independent eigenvector. Find the eigenvalues of and determine whether is diagonalisable.
(ii) Find the eigenvectors and eigenvalues of .
Paper 1, Section II, B
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) Show that a square matrix is anti-symmetric if and only if for every vector .
(b) Let be a real anti-symmetric matrix. Show that the eigenvalues of are imaginary or zero, and that the eigenvectors corresponding to distinct eigenvalues are orthogonal (in the sense that , where the dagger denotes the hermitian conjugate).
(c) Let be a non-zero real anti-symmetric matrix. Show that there is a real non-zero vector a such that .
Now let be a real vector orthogonal to . Show that for some real number .
The matrix is defined by the exponential series Express and in terms of and .
[You are not required to consider issues of convergence.]
Paper 1, Section II,
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) Given consider the linear transformation which maps
Express as a matrix with respect to the standard basis , and determine the rank and the dimension of the kernel of for the cases (i) , where is a fixed number, and (ii) .
(b) Given that the equation
where
has a solution, show that .
Paper 1, Section II, E
Part IA, 2017 commentLet be a bounded function defined on the closed, bounded interval of . Suppose that for every there is a dissection of such that , where and denote the lower and upper Riemann sums of for the dissection . Deduce that is Riemann integrable. [You may assume without proof that for all dissections and of
Prove that if is continuous, then is Riemann integrable.
Let be a bounded continuous function. Show that for any , the function defined by
is Riemann integrable.
Let be a differentiable function with one-sided derivatives at the endpoints. Suppose that the derivative is (bounded and) Riemann integrable. Show that
[You may use the Mean Value Theorem without proof.]
Paper 2, Section I, C
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) The numbers satisfy
where are given constants. Find in terms of and .
(b) The numbers satisfy
where are given non-zero constants and are given constants. Let and , where . Calculate , and hence find in terms of and .
Paper 2, Section I,
Part IA, 2017 commentConsider the function
defined for and , where is a non-zero real constant. Show that is a stationary point of for each . Compute the Hessian and its eigenvalues at .
Paper 2, Section II, C
Part IA, 2017 commentThe current at time in an electrical circuit subject to an applied voltage obeys the equation
where and are the constant resistance, inductance and capacitance of the circuit with and .
(a) In the case and , show that there exist time-periodic solutions of frequency , which you should find.
(b) In the case , the Heaviside function, calculate, subject to the condition
the current for , assuming it is zero for .
(c) If and , where is as in part (a), show that there is a timeperiodic solution of period and calculate its maximum value .
(i) Calculate the energy dissipated in each period, i.e., the quantity
Show that the quantity defined by
satisfies .
(ii) Write down explicitly the general solution for all , and discuss the relevance of to the large time behaviour of .
Paper 2, Section II, C
Part IA, 2017 comment(a) Consider the system
for . Find the critical points, determine their type and explain, with the help of a diagram, the behaviour of solutions for large positive times .
(b) Consider the system
for . Rewrite the system in polar coordinates by setting and , and hence describe the behaviour of solutions for large positive and large negative times.