Module Code

MAT00003C
RESIT

BA, BSc and MMath Resit Examinations 2020/21

Department:
Mathematics
Title of Exam:
Introduction to Applied Mathematics
Time Allowed:
You have 24 hours from the release of this exam to upload your solutions.
Allocation of Marks:
The marking scheme shown on each question is indicative only.

Question: 1 2 3 4 5 6 Total
Marks: 20 15 15 17 18 15 100

Instructions for Candidates:

Answer all questions.
It is important to show your work and reasoning in order to demonstrate your
knowledge and understanding. Marks will be attributed for reasoning, particularly in
discussion sections.
Queries:
If you believe that there is an error on this exam paper, then please use the “Queries” link
below the exam on Moodle.
This will be available for the first hour after the release of this exam.
After that, if a question is unclear, then answer it as best you can and note the assumptions
you’ve made to allow you to proceed.
Submission:
Please write clearly and submit a single copy of your solution to each question. Any
handwritten work in your electronic submission must be legible. Black ink is recommended
for written answers. View your submission before uploading.
Number each page of your solutions consecutively. Write the exam title, your candidate
number, and the page number at the top of each page.
Upload your solutions to the “Exam submission” link below the exam on Moodle (preferably
as a single PDF file). If you are unable to do this, then email them to
[email protected].

Page 1 (of 9)
 MAT00003C (R)

A Note on Academic Integrity

We are treating this online examination as a time-limited open assessment, and you are
therefore permitted to refer to written and online materials to aid you in your answers.
However, you must ensure that the work you submit is entirely your own, and for
28 hours after the exam is released, you must not:

¼ communicate with departmental staff on the topic of the assessment (except by

means of the query procedure detailed overleaf),

¼ communicate with other students on the topic of this assessment,

¼ seek assistance on this assessment from the academic and/or disability support
services, such as the Writing and Language Skills Centre, Maths Skills Centre
and/or Disability Services (unless you have been recommended an exam support
worker in a Student Support Plan),

¼ seek advice or contribution from any third party, including proofreaders, friends,
or family members.

We expect, and trust, that all our students will seek to maintain the integrity of the
assessment, and of their awards, through ensuring that these instructions are strictly
followed. Failure to adhere to these requirements will be considered a breach of the
Academic Misconduct regulations, where the offences of plagiarism, breach/cheating,
collusion and commissioning are relevant — see Section AM.1.2.1 of the Guide to
Assessment (note that this supersedes Section 7.3).

Page 2 (of 9)
 MAT00003C (R)

1 (of 6). Concepts of Newtonian Mechanics

(a) Consider a particle moving on a straight line. Its velocity, ẋ(t), at time t
relative to a coordinate axis Ox is observed to be given by

ẋ(t) = α cos (ωt + δ) + βt, (1)

where α, β, ω and δ are constants that have been calculated by fitting to data.

(i) Determine the physical dimensions of α, β, ω and δ. [4 Marks]

(ii) Find the acceleration of the particle at time t. [2 Marks]

(iii) Find the position of the particle, x(t), given that x(0) = 0. [3 Marks]

(b) A fairground ride consisting of a seat of mass m on a straight, horizontal,

frictionless track is accelerated by a time-dependent force A cos(ωt).
(i) Introduce an appropriate coordinate system and write down the equation
of motion for the position x(t). [3 Marks]

(ii) Find a general solution of the equation of motion. [3 Marks]

(iii) Find a solution satisfying the conditions

x(0) = 0, ẋ(0) = 0.

[2 Marks]

(c) Given that parts a) and b) describe the same system, determine the constants
α, β, and δ in terms of the other constants. [3 Marks]

[Total: 20 Marks]

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 MAT00003C (R)

2 (of 6). Motion in a potential

A particle of mass m at position x is moving under the action of a force with the
potential
V (x) = A(x2 − 1)2 ,
where A is a positive constant.

(a) (i) Calculate the force F (x) from the potential and thus determine the equa-
tion of motion of the particle. [2 Marks]

(ii) Write down an expression for the energy E of the particle moving in the
potential V (x). [1 Mark]

(iii) Find the equilibrium positions of the particle. [2 Marks]

(iv) Determine whether the equilibria found in part (iii) are stable or not.
[3 Marks]

dE
(v) Show that the energy is conserved by calculating dt
using the given
expression for V (x). [4 Marks]

(b) A particular force in the xy-plane given by

2
xy
F= .
x2 y

Determine whether the force is conservative or not, explaining your answer

and calculating the potential if possible. [3 Marks]

[Total: 15 Marks]

Page 4 (of 9)
 MAT00003C (R)

3 (of 6). Motion in two spatial dimensions

A skydiver is using indoor skydiving equipment, which consists of a large fan of
width L that propels air vertically above the fan with velocity w = f (x)j, where
f (x) = F , a positive constant, if 0 ≤ x ≤ L and zero otherwise. Here, i and
j denote unit vectors in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively. We
shall assume that the skydiver can be modelled as a point particle of mass m at
position x(t). The skydiver pushes off from the left-hand side of the fan at position
x(0) = 0 into the vertical airstream with initial velocity v0 = u0 i.
The air exerts a Stokes drag force on the skydiver of Γ(w − v(t)), where v(t) is
the skydiver’s velocity. Uniform gravity also acts on the skydiver.

(a) Write down the equation of motion of the skydiver in vector form for the case
that 0 ≤ x ≤ L. [2 Marks]

(b) Show that this may be written as the system

ẍ + k ẋ = 0, ÿ + k ẏ = kF − g,


x
where k = Γ/m and x = . [2 Marks]
y

(c) By writing u = ẋ and v = ẏ derive a system of first order ODEs for u and v.
[2 Marks]

(d) Carefully explaining your solution method, show that




u C1 −kt 0
= e + ,
v C2 F − kg

where C1 and C2 are arbitrary constants. [2 Marks]

(e) Hence, obtain a solution for x and y satisfying the initial conditions. [4 Marks]

(f) Assuming that F > kg , establish a condition for the skydiver to reach the far
edge of the airstream and the height they will achieve at this edge if they are
able to get there.
[3 Marks]

[Total: 15 Marks]

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 MAT00003C (R)

4 (of 6). Waves on water are of two kinds: gravity waves, of long wavelength, in which the
restorative force is gravity, and capillary waves, of short wavelength, in which the
restorative force is surface tension. The speed v of any such wave may depend on
wavelength λ, water density ρ, and at least one other constant.

(a) The speed vgrav of a gravity wave depends on λ, ρ and the acceleration g due
to gravity. Use dimensional considerations to find the form of the dependence
of vgrav on λ, ρ and g. [3 Marks]

(b) The speed vcap of a capillary wave depends on λ, ρ and the water’s surface
tension σ, which has dimensions M T −2 . Use dimensional considerations to
find the form of the dependence of vcap on λ, ρ and σ. [3 Marks]

(c) For intermediate wavelengths, v depends on λ, ρ, g and σ. Use dimensional

analysis to show that the relationship among these quantities takes the form


v2 ρgλ2
=f ,
gλ σ

and explain how this result follows from Buckingham’s Π theorem. [5 Marks]

(d) The precise form of the relationship in (c) is

gλ 2πσ
v2 = + .
2π ρλ

What is f (x)? [3 Marks]

(e) Crossover from capillary to gravitational waves occurs when the two terms
on the right in (d) are equal. Taking ρ = 1000 kg m−3 , g = 10 m s−2 and
σ = 0.07 kg s−2 , find the approximate wavelength at which this happens.
[3 Marks]

[Total: 17 Marks]

Page 6 (of 9)
 MAT00003C (R)

5 (of 6). In the Kermack-McKendrick ‘SIR’ model of an epidemic, a population of N peo-

ple is split into S susceptible, I infectious and R removed, with
dS dI dR
= −β, = βSI − γI, = γI.
dt dt dt
We define the growth rate g(t) = βS − γ.
Initially almost all people are susceptible, and none have been removed.

(a) The epidemic begins when a few people become infected. Define the basic
reproduction number R0 in terms of β, γ and N , and show that an epidemic
occurs if and only if R0 > 1. [3 Marks]

(b) At the start of the epidemic, case numbers grow exponentially, I
eg0 t ,
doubling every 5 days. Find the approximate value of g0 . [2 Marks]

1
(c) It is observed that the serial interval time T = γ
is about 7 days. Show that

R0 − 1
= g0 , (∗)
T
and find the approximate value of R0 . [3 Marks]

(d) Explain why, as more cases appear, the growth rate g and the effective repro-
duction number R = 1 + gT both fall. [2 Marks]

(e) After an initial wave of infections, social-distancing measures are introduced

which reduce the reproduction number by a factor of one half. How do case
numbers now progress over time? [2 Marks]

Page 7 (of 9) continued on next page

continued from previous page MAT00003C (R)

After a long period of social distancing the effective overall reproduction number
has declined to around 0.6 and social distancing ceases. However, case numbers
now rapidly rise. The epidemiologists realize that a new, second variant of the
disease is now present alongside the old, first variant. The new variant does not
infect those who have previously been infected by the old variant. Testing shows
that the new variant is increasing rapidly at g2 = 0.2 per day, while the old variant
is increasing very slowly at g1 = 0.03 per day.

(f) The old variant has parameters R1 , T1 (= 7 days) and the new variant has
parameters R2 , T2 . Show that new-variant case numbers could be growing
either because the new variant is more infectious, R2 > R1 (and T1 = T2 ), or
because the new variant has a shorter interval, T2 < T1 (and R1 = R2 ), and
that we cannot yet deduce which of these is true. [3 Marks]

(g) It becomes understood that late during social distancing, when reproduction
numbers were reduced by a factor of one half, old-variant cases were declin-
ing but new-variant cases were increasing. Explain why this is inconsistent
with the second, shorter-interval possibility in (f), and hence deduce the val-
ues of the new-variant’s effective and basic reproduction numbers. [3 Marks]

[Total: 18 Marks]

Page 8 (of 9)
 MAT00003C (R)

6 (of 6). (a) (i) The density ϕ(x, t) of a dye released at x = 0, t = 0 in still water obeys
the standard diffusion equation

∂ϕ ∂ 2ϕ
= κ 2.
∂t ∂x
Show that
2 t−1
ϕ(x, t) = t−1/2 e−αx
1
is a solution for α = 4κ
. [4 Marks]

(ii) Sketch this solution as a function of x for fixed t. Explain why, at small
t, it is a reasonable model of the initial infusion of dye. What happens as
t increases? [4 Marks]

(b) (i) The turbulent diffusion of the density ϕ(x, t) of pollutant particles a dis-
tance x from a power station chimney obeys, instead, a non-standard
diffusion equation

∂ϕ ∂ 4/3 ∂ϕ
=κ x .
∂t ∂x ∂x
Show that
2/3 t−1
ϕ(x, t) = t−3/2 e−αx
9
is a solution for α = 4κ
. [4 Marks]

(ii) Assuming that the solution in (b)(i) describes the dispersal of the pollu-
tants, how would you describe this dispersal over time, in contrast to the
standard dispersal by diffusion of (a)? [3 Marks]

[Total: 15 Marks]

Page 9 (of 9) End of examination.