MATH3700 Practice Questions Sem 2, 2021

Practice Questions Set: Polar Coordinates, Mean Value Property

and Maximum Principle
1. Find a closed form solution u(x, y) of the Dirichlet problem

∆u = 0 for x2 + y 2 < 9,

u = x2 y 2 for x2 + y 2 = 9.
The solution should not involve an integral and should be expressed in Cartesian coordi-
nates.

2. Use the method of separation of variable to solve the Laplace’s equation in polar coordi-
nates
1 1
∂r2 u(r, θ) + ∂r u(r, θ) + 2 ∂θ2 u(r, θ) = 0
r r
in the unit disc with the boundary condition

u(1, θ) = 1 + cos θ.

3. If r < a, show that

∞  
X r n  a2 − r 2
1+2 cos(nt − nθ) = .
a a2 − 2ar cos(t − θ) + r2
n=1

4. Consider the polar coordinates x = r cos θ and y = r sin θ. Show that

sin θ cos θ
∂x = ∂r cos θ − ∂θ ; ∂y = ∂r sin θ + ∂θ ,
r r
and that
1 1
∆ = ∂x2 + ∂y2 = ∂r2 + ∂r + 2 ∂θ2 ,
r r
where
∂2u 2 ∂2u
∂x2 u = , ∂ y u = ,··· .
∂x2 ∂y 2
5. Evaluate the Laplacian of the following functions using Cartesian and polar coordinates
and verify that you get the same results.

(a) u(x, y) = xy
(b) u(x, y) = x3 + y 2 + 3x2 y
x2 −y 2
(c) u(x, y) = x2 +y 2
.

6. Let D be a disk defined as

D = {(r, θ) : r < a, 0 ≤ θ < 2π},

and D̄ be its closure. Let u be continuous on D̄ and harmonic on D, and

u(a, θ) = 2 + 4 sin θ.

(a) Find the maximum and minimum values of u on D̄.

(b) Find the value of u at the origin.
MATH3700 Practice Questions Sem 2, 2021

7. Let r = (x, y), r0 = (x0 , y0 ) be two vectors with |r| < a and |r0 | = a. Show that the
Poisson integral formula can be written as

a2 − |r|2
I
u(r0 )
u(r) = 2
ds(r0 ),
2πa C |r − r0 |
p
where C = {(x, y)| x2 + y 2 = a2 }, and ds(r0 ) = dx20 + dy02 . Here (x, y) lies inside the
circle and (x0 , y0 ) lies on the circle C.

8. The d’Alembert’s solution to the wave equation

∂tt u(x, t) = c2 ∂xx u(x, t) in R × R+

with the initial conditions

u(x, 0) = f (x) and ut (x, 0) = g(x)

is Z x+ct
1 1
u(x, t) = [f (x − ct) + f (x + ct)] + g(s) ds,
2 2c x−ct
where f is twice continuously differentiable on R and g is once continuously differentiable
on R. Show that the function u(x, t) satisfies the wave equation and the initial conditions.
Here R+ = {t ∈ R : t > 0}.