C17 Worksheet Week2+
C17 Worksheet Week2+
C17 Worksheet Week2+
Separable Equations
A first-order differential equation is separable if it can be written in the form
dy f (x)
= .
dx g(y)
dy
We then solve this equation by multiplying both sides by g(y), g(y) dx = f (x) and integrating both sides
with respect to x: Z Z Z
dy
g(y) dx = g(y) dy = f (x) dx.
dx
Example: Solve the initial value problem
dy cos x
= 2 ; y(0) = 2
dx y
This equation is separable, with f (x) = cos x and g(y) = y 2 . This gives:
Z Z
2 1 3
y dy = cos x dx, therefore, y = sin x + c
3
We use the inital value to solve for integration constant c. Substituting x = 0 and y = 2 gives
8
c=
3
This leads to the (implicit) solution:
y 3 = 3 sin x + 8
Practice Problems: Determine which of the following equations is separable. If separable, find the general
solution.
1. y 0 = x2 /y 2. y 0 + 2y = x/ cos(y) 3. y 0 + y 2 sin x = 0
Integrating Factor Method
Integrating factors are used to solve the linear first-order differential equation of the form
y 0 + p(x)y = f (x).
The method:
Step 1: Find the integrating factor: R
p(x) dx
µ(x) = e ,
R
where p(x) dx can be any antiderivative of p(x) (typically we choose the arbitrary constant C = 0).
Step 2: Multiply both sides by integrating factor to get
R R
e p(x) dx
(y 0 + p(x)y) = f (x)e p(x) dx