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1: First order ODEs

  • Page ID
    203288
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    • 1.1: Introduction
      A differential equation is an equation that contains one or more derivatives of an unknown function. The order of a differential equation is the order of the highest derivative that it contains. A differential equation is an ordinary differential equation if it involves an unknown function of only one variable, or a partial differential equation if it involves partial derivatives of a function of more than one variable.  This section introduces basic concepts and definitions.
    • 1.2: Integrals as solutions
      If \(y^{(n)}=f(x)\), then we may be able to solve these differential equations using antidifferentiation if the function \(f(x)\) is integrable. In this section, we will explore this technique and examine examples where integrals provide solutions to the differential equation.
    • 1.3: Slope fields
      The general first order equation we are studying looks like y′=f(x,y). In general, we cannot simply solve these kinds of equations explicitly. It would be nice if we could at least figure out the shape and behavior of the solutions, or if we could find approximate solutions.
    • 1.4: Separable Equations
      If \(y'=f(x) g(y)\), then this type of equation is known as a separable equation. In this section, we will learn how to solve separable differential equations.
    • 1.5: Linear equations and the integrating factor
      One of the most important types of equations we will learn how to solve are the so-called linear equations. In fact, the majority of the course is about linear equations. In this lecture we focus on the first order linear equation.
    • 1.6: Substitution
      There are several differential equations that can be solved using substitution. For example, if we have a homogeneous equation, we can substitute \(v = y/x\), and if we have a Bernoulli equation, we can substitute \(v = y^{1-n}\), and so on. In this section, we will learn these and other substitution techniques for solving linear and nonlinear differential equations.
    • 1.7: Exact Equations
      In this section, we define exact differential equations and establish the methodology for solving them.
    • 1.8: Autonomous equations
    • 1.9: Existence and Uniqueness of Solutions of Nonlinear Equations
      Although there are methods for solving some nonlinear equations, it is impossible to find useful formulas for the solutions of most. Whether we are looking for exact solutions or numerical approximations, it is useful to know conditions that imply the existence and uniqueness of solutions of initial value problems for nonlinear equations. In this section we state such a condition and illustrate it with examples.
    • 1.10: Numerical methods- Euler’s method
    • 1.11: First Order Linear PDE
    • 1.E: First order ODEs (Exercises)
      These are homework exercises to accompany Libl's "Differential Equations for Engineering" Textmap. This is a textbook targeted for a one semester first course on differential equations, aimed at engineering students. Prerequisite for the course is the basic calculus sequence.


    This page titled 1: First order ODEs is shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Jiří Lebl.

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