Calculus III: Practice problems

Note: These problems are selected to emphasize some of the most important parts of this module and
knowing how to solve such problems should be a key component for your exam preparation. Typed/Written
solutions to these problems will not be provided. However I will be going over most of the problems
below in the revision lecture. In advance of the revision lecture, please try to solve as many of these problems
as you can and ask me any questions that seem unclear. In preparation for the exam, please also study all
other parts of the module, especially the ones highlighted in the accompanying “Some key topics” document.

(1) State whether the following statements are true or false, with an explanation in each case.
(a) Consider the curve in R2 given in polar coordinate form by the equation r = 5. Then the
arc-length of this curve from θ = 0 to θ = π equals 10π.

∂r ∂r 
(b) Consider the surface in R3 given in parametric form by r(u, v). Then ∂u − ∂v (u0 ,v0 )
is a
vector normal to the surface at the point r(u0 , v0 ).
(c) A conservative vector field on R3 is always curl-free.
(d) The Laplacian of a scalar field is a vector field.
(e) If F is a solenoidal vector field, then the flux of F across any closed oriented surface equals 0.
(f) The surface given by x2 + 2x + y 2 − z 2 = 0 is a paraboloid.
(2) Let C be the curve in R3 whose parametric equation reads r(t) = (sin t, cos t, t). Consider the points
A = (0, 0, 0), B = (0, 1, 0) and C = (1, 0, π/2).
(a) Make a sketch of this curve, for 0 ≤ t ≤ 4π.
(b) Only two of the points A,B,C belong to the curve. Determine which are these points and
compute the arc length of C between these two points.
(c) Consider the vector field F = xi + yj + k. Calculate the line integral of F along C between the
two points found in part (b) (the direction should be taken from the point with smaller value
of the parameter to the one with larger value).
(3) Prove that F = (2x − z, −2y, −x) is conservative and compute a scalar potential φ for F.
(4) (a) State the Divergence theorem.
(b) Using the Divergence theorem, calculate the flux of the vector field F = (x − y, y − z, x5 − 2z)
across the surface S given by the equation S = {(x, y, z) : x8 + y 8 + z 8 = 7}. (You can assume
that S is closed and oriented).
(5) Let S be the surface given by {x2 + y 2 + z 2 = 9, 0 ≤ z ≤ 3}. Using spherical coordinates, calculate
the flux of the vector field F = j + z k across S. (You may find it helpful to look at the appendix).
(6) Let Φ(x, y) be a scalar field that satisfies Laplace’s equation ∇2 Φ = 0 inside the rectangle D given
by 0 ≤ x ≤ π, 0 ≤ y ≤ 1. The boundary conditions are: Φ(x, 0) = 1 − xπ, Φ(0, y) = 1 + y,
Φ(x, 1) = 2 − x2 , Φ(π, y) = 1 − π 2 + y. Find Φ(x, y). (You may find it helpful to look at the
appendix).

Appendix:
Some trigonometric identities
For integers m, n not both equal to 0, and a real number a, we have
(
2 a 0 if m 6= n
Z
sin (mπx/a) sin (nπx/a) =
a 0 1 if m = n
(
2 a 0 if m 6= n
Z
cos (mπx/a) cos (nπx/a) =
a 0 1 if m = n
Z a
sin (mπx/a) cos (nπx/a) = 0.
−a
For any non-negative integer n, we have
(
2 π 0 if n = 2k
Z
x(π − x) sin(nx) = 8
π 0 (2k+1)3 π if n = 2k + 1
1
 Spherical coordinates (covered in class)
The spherical coordinates (r, θ, φ) satisfy r > 0, 0 ≤ θ ≤ π, 0 ≤ φ ≤ 2π and are related to the usual
Cartesian coordinates (x, y, z) by x = r sin θ cos φ, y = r sin θ sin φ, z = r cos θ. The corresponding unit
vectors in spherical coordinates er , eθ , eφ are orthonormal. The relation between the unit vectors in Cartesian
coordinates and the unit vectors in spherical coordinates can be expressed by the equation
    
er sin θ cos φ sin θ sin φ cos θ i
 eθ  = cos θ cos φ cos θ sin φ − sin θ  j 
eφ − sin φ cos φ 0 k
2
In spherical coordinates, the area element dS is given by r sin θer dθ dφ while the volume element dV is
given by r2 sin θ dr dθ dφ.

Dirichlet’s problem (Boundary Case I)

Consider the rectangle D = {0 ≤ x ≤ a, 0 ≤ y ≤ b}. Suppose we want to find a smooth real-valued
function Φ on D satisfying the following properties:
(1) ∇2 Φ = 0,
(2) Φ = 0 on the three sides x = 0, y = 0, x = a,
(3) Φ = g(x) on the side y = b where g(x) is a smooth real-valued function satisfying g(0) = g(a) = 0.
Then the unique solution to the above problem is
∞
X En
Φ(x, y) = sinh(nπy/a) sin(nπx/a)
n=1
sinh(nπb/a)
where the coefficients En are the (sine) Fourier coefficients for g(x), i.e., for all 0 ≤ x ≤ a,
X∞
g(x) = En sin(nπx/a).
n=1
The coefficients En can be directly found via the formula
2 a
Z
Em = g(x) sin(nπx/a)dx.
a 0