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PHAS1245: Mathematical Methods I - Problem Sheet 7: A/ (V RT)

This document provides 4 mathematical problems to solve for a problem sheet. The problems cover: 1) calculating derivatives of an equation of state for a gas and showing their product is -1. 2) Finding an expression for the Laplacian of a function in polar coordinates. 3) Determining the number and type of stationary points for a function of two variables. 4) Calculating the volume of the largest box that can fit inside an ellipsoid. Students are instructed to show their work and solutions will be collected the following Tuesday.

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Roy Vesey
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23 views1 page

PHAS1245: Mathematical Methods I - Problem Sheet 7: A/ (V RT)

This document provides 4 mathematical problems to solve for a problem sheet. The problems cover: 1) calculating derivatives of an equation of state for a gas and showing their product is -1. 2) Finding an expression for the Laplacian of a function in polar coordinates. 3) Determining the number and type of stationary points for a function of two variables. 4) Calculating the volume of the largest box that can fit inside an ellipsoid. Students are instructed to show their work and solutions will be collected the following Tuesday.

Uploaded by

Roy Vesey
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PHAS1245: Mathematical Methods I - Problem Sheet 7

(Solutions to be handed in at the lecture on Tuesday 27th November 2007)

Staple your answer sheets together and put your name and your tutor’s name on
your script (or Dr. Konstantinidis, if you have no tutor in the P&A department).

1. A possible equation of state of a gas takes the form

pV = RT e−a/(V RT ) ,

where R and a are constants. Calculate expressions for


! ! !
∂p ∂V ∂T
, , ,
∂V T
∂T p
∂p V

and show that their product is -1. (This is a more general result – see, for
example, section 5.4 in the textbook Riley et al).
[Hint: you may need to use implicit differentiation. Also, you may find it easier
to take the logarithm of the above expression first.]

2. If f (x, y) = x2 y 2 and (ρ, φ) the polar coordinates (x = ρ cos φ, y = ρ sin φ),


show that
∂2f ∂2f ∂2f ∂2f
! ! ! ! !
1 ∂f 1
+ = + + 2 .
∂x2 y
∂y 2 x
∂ρ2 φ
ρ ∂ρ φ
ρ ∂φ2 ρ

(This result is independent of the functional form of f. The quantity (∂ 2 f /∂x2 +


∂ 2 f /∂y 2 +∂ 2 f /∂z 2 ) is called the Laplacian of f (x, y, z) and occurs often in many
areas of physics, e.g. electromagnetism and quantum mechanics.)

3. Show that

f (x, y) = x3 − 12xy + 48x + by 2 , b 6= 0 ,

has two, one or zero stationary points depending on whether |b| is smaller than,
equal to or greater than 3. In the case of two stationary points, find whether
these are minima, maxima, or saddle points (the answer depends on the value
of b).

4. Find the volume of the largest rectangular parallelipiped (that is a box with
edges parallel to the coordinate axes), that can be inscribed in the ellipsoid

x2 y 2 z 2
+ 2 + 2 = 1.
a2 b c

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