Talk:Ordinary differential equation/Archive 1

Mathematical errors
I just discovered that the indices of the first equation in section 'Linear ordinary differential equations' were wrongly placed. I corrected it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 88.73.249.239 (talk) 16:59, 15 May 2007 (UTC).

Gripe with incorrection
Just a small gripe. The (Possibly complex) part of this is annoying me. It's not possibly complex, they'll always be complex.


 * I've changed "complex" to "imaginary," as that seems to be what was actually meant. You do realize that you could have just edited the article yourself? Ruakh 04:08, 12 May 2005 (UTC)


 * I did not mean "$$\in i\mathbb R$$". i meant "$$\in\mathbb C\smallsetminus\mathbb R$$". Kwantus 2005 June 30 00:14 (UTC)


 * Yes, he could simply edited it and get on with his life. OTOH, after he noticed the error, he decided to discuss it with the community. I don't see what's wrong with that approach. --Mecanismo 11:17, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

First paragrapho needs work
The first paragraph is not quite technically correct. It's not a bad start, but should be refined a bit.

''If you could elaborate in its technical incorrectness, I'll get refining... GWO''

Now you have something to pull apart...RoseParks

Sorry slight thought - is the intro not a bit long? - feels a bit like it should simply state what a ODE is without trying to give examples etc.? --Wideofthemark (talk) 20:31, 26 November 2007 (UTC)

Typesetting note
Just a typesetting note: when doing some minor copyediting here, I discovered that using an ordinary apostrope (') for the "prime" sign really wreaks havoc on the Wiki software (especially when doubled), since it tries to interpret them as bold, italics, etc. The "correct" thing to do would be to use, but some browsers won't handle that well, and there's no other tricky notation on this page to justify the use of special characters. So I have used the bare-acute-accent character ´ (decimal 0180) for the prime symbol. It should work on all browsers using either ISO or Windows ANSI, and doesn't screw up the Wiki software. --LDC

Superb!

Now for the nits... (heh) For an ODE, we really speak of a function x of a single parameter t, that is, x = x(t)...

The really frustrating thing about math is that so much of the notation I learned in lower division I more or less had to unlearn in upper division or grad level classes.

Types of DEs and solving methods?
Perhaps some mention of the different types of differential equations and methods for solving them would be appropriate (i.e. linear first and second order, etc.) --BlackGriffen

Relationship to Vector fields talk?
No talk at all about the relationship to Vector fields, which are really ODEs wearing funny hats, except they exist on differential manifolds and can be defined without co-ordinates.
 * Would you like to add a paragraph about that connection? AxelBoldt

Plural?
Is there any reason why this article uses the plural title?
 * nope. should be fixed. AxelBoldt
 * yep. "Differential Equations" is the name of a field of study in math. A "differential equation" (singular) would be the object of that field of study. I will move the article to the singular, leaving a link from the plural. Ed Poor

History section needs rewrite
I believe that the history section here ought to be rewritten preferrably by someone who knows something about it and doesn't simply 'copy' a 100+ year old book on the subject - and doesn't tell that's what have been done! I see that there are a number of references to 'recent works', 'the modern school' and so on, when referring to texts written well over a century ago! 'Recent writers' refer to (amongst others) Klein (-1925), Weierstrass (-1897) and Frobenius (1849-1917). Do you agree that the history part here should be deleted? Mikez 18:00, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Please don't delete. Quite a bit of work has been done already - obviously it is still in a bad state, but starting again with nothing isn't a good idea. In the end there will have to be major changes - of course.

Charles Matthews 18:13, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)

This now removed - hard to upgrade:

''The modern school has also turned its attention to the theory of differential invariants, one of fundamental importance and one which Lie has made prominent. With this theory are associated the names of Cayley, Cockle, Sylvester, Forsyth, Laguerre, and Halphen. Recent writers have shown the same tendency noticeable in the work of Monge and Cauchy, the tendency to separate into two schools, the one inclining to use the geometric diagram, and represented by Schwarz, Klein, and Goursat, the other adhering to pure analysis, of which Weierstrass, Fuchs, and Frobenius are types. The work of Fuchs and the theory of elementary divisors have formed the basis of a late work by Sauvage (1895). Poincar\'e's recent contributions are also very notable. His theory of Fuchsian equations (also investigated by Klein) is connected with the general theory. He has also brought the whole subject into close relations with the theory of functions. Appell has recently contributed to the theory of linear differential equations transformable into themselves by change of the function and the variable. Helge von Koch has written on infinite determinants and linear differential equations. Picard has undertaken the generalization of the work of Fuchs and Poincar\'e in the case of differential equations of the second order. Fabry (1885) has generalized the normal integrals of Thomé, integrals which Poincar\'e has called "intégrales anormales," and which Picard has recently studied. Riquier treated the question of the existence of integrals in any differential system and gave a brief summary of the history to 1895. The later contributors include Brioschi, Königsberger, Peano, Graf, Hamburger, Graindorge, Schläfli, Glaisher, Lommel, Gilbert, Fabry, Craig, and Autonne.''

Charles Matthews 11:52, 12 Apr 2004 (UTC)

Ok...Mikez

L-H revert
Unfortunately, I can't make sense out of the sentence "Differential equation was born as the fundamental equation which describes the natural law." It contains grammatical errors which could be fixed, but the meaning is still too unclear to me. So I reverted. I notice that the sentence in question links to fundamental equation. I question whether this usage is standard.

Seems like a lot of the history on this page may be a copyvio? We definitely at least need the source of all this stuff. I'm working on it to make sure the dead men don't seem to be alive :-) - Gauge 21:18, 4 Aug 2004 (UTC)

No, from an old PD source I believe: User:Recentchanges added this and similar stuff on a number of pages. Charles Matthews 06:15, 23 Aug 2004 (UTC)

How much schooling do I have to go through in order to be able to understand ANY of this? I am just curious: what is the education level of the authors of this page?


 * With nothing more than differential calculus you can understand what differential equations are and what it means to solve a differential equation. To get much into the theory of the subject, you need to go beyond first-year calculus. Michael Hardy 00:57, 1 Sep 2004 (UTC)


 * As to education level of authors of this page, I suspect it varies greatly, since differential equations is (yes "is", not "are") one of those courses that very large numbers of students in many different fiedls are required to study. Generally that means lots of people who don't know much math have contributed here, probably including some who haven't gone beyond a couple of years of calculus. Michael Hardy 14:51, 1 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Splitting up the page
I was thinking about reworking this page, and breaking out a lot of the topics into their own pages (like ordinary differential equation, method of undetermined coefficients, etc.). Does anyone object? -- Walt Pohl 07:08, 7 Jan 2005 (UTC)


 * I don't object conceptually - indeed, something much like that is on my to-do list - but I do advise caution, as many articles already exist on subtopics (for example, I came across variation of parameters after completely reworking the section on it in this article), and content from this article needs to be merged into those articles. The last thing we need is even more articles on subtopics duplicating each other. Ruakh 06:55, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)


 * One thing I think should be done is get rid of the separate examples of differential equations article and move its content to this article and/or articles on subtopics. Ruakh 06:55, 8 Jan 2005 (UTC)


 * You're right. That information should be integrated better.  And thanks for pointing out the variation of parameters page -- I doubt I ever would have found it myself. -- Walt Pohl 09:06, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Okay, I've formulated a possible (albeit complicated) plan of attack:

-- Walt Pohl 09:27, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)
 * Delete the current redirect at ordinary differential equation. Move this page there.
 * Integrate the little bit about PDEs into the PDE page.
 * Delete the current redirect at method of variation of parameters. Move variation of parameters there.
 * Move the section on undetermined coefficients to method of undetermined coefficients.
 * Write a new differential equation page that's a lot shorter, and provides a less ODE-centric overview.
 * I'm not quite sure what to do with examples of differential equations. A lot of it could be moved to a page on first-order linear ordinary differential equations.  There's also the linear differential equation page to keep in mind.


 * The new problem is, of course, that the new method pages require some background before getting into them. method of undetermined coefficients, for example.  I'm working on it, but there's no real easy solution.  It's hard to provide context for these method pages without slogging through the whole ODE mess --Eienmaru 23:14, 15 May 2005 (UTC)

Copyright violation?
Moved from article:


 * This seems like probable copyright violation; what is "3.1"? Ans: "3.1: Linear ODEs with constant coefficients -=Heuwitt=-" A section of a non-public-domain work? Ans: "You are welcome to contribute additional examples (which pertains to the topic of interest, that is). -=Heuwitt=-" Ruakh 21:03, 2 Jan 2005 (UTC)]

I don't agree that the use of "3.1" may indicate a probably copyright violation; Heuwitt's explanation seems reasonable to me (though I would refer to the section in another way). -- Jitse Niesen 13:54, 19 Jan 2005 (UTC)

eh... beh?
The influence of geometry, physics, and astronomy, starting with Newton and Leibniz, and further manifested through the Bernoullis, Riccati, and Clairaut, but chiefly through d'Alembert and Euler, has been very marked, and especially on the theory of linear partial differential equations with constant coefficients. I'm sorry but I have no idea what this paragraph is trying to say, or what it has to do with the section it's heading. Anyone care to rewrite it? PenguiN42 21:21, Jan 19, 2005 (UTC)

Euler's Forumla
Is it truly necessary to derive Euler's formula in the middle of this article? Can't we just take it 'on faith' and link the astute reader elsewhere? --Eienmaru 02:55, 22 May 2005 (UTC)
 * I agree. That just distracts from the main point of the article. I now replaced it with a link. This article looks as if it needs more work. Oleg Alexandrov 03:36, 22 May 2005 (UTC)
 * IMO even mentioning Euler's formula clutters things up. So does an example that switches to operator notation. It's making a really really simple case into a hash. Kwantus 2005 June 30 00:39 (UTC)

Homogeneous Linear ODE's: Error in example?
In the example side box, it says:

e^ix, e^-ix, e^x, xe^x This corresponds to the real-valued solution basis cosx, sinx, e^x, xe^x

Should this instead read cosx, cosx, e^x, xe^x

as cos(x) = cos(-x)


 * I don't think so: both cos(x) and sin(x) are real-valued functions that are (complex) linear combinations of eix and e&minus;ix. Michael Hardy 22:12, 28 August 2005 (UTC)


 * To elaborate on what Michael Hardy said: it's not that eix corresponds to cos(x) and e&minus;ix corresponds to sin(x); rather, eix and e&minus;ix, taken together, correspond to cos(x) and sin(x). Does that make sense? Ruakh 02:00, 29 August 2005 (UTC)

well, actually (a far as i know...) there is a formula saying that : e^(i*T) = cos(T)+ sin(T) ; where T is a mathematical expression Undye 13:23, 25 January 2006 (UTC)


 * You're close. According to Euler's formula, $$e^{iT} = \cos \left( T \right) + i \sin \left( T \right)$$. I don't quite see your point, though . . . ? Ruakh 15:00, 25 January 2006 (UTC)


 * Hey Undye, I see from your entries that you're a new wikipedian. Welcome!  Here are a couple of hints:  When you respond on a talk page, use colons s to indent the conversation.  Also, you can sign and date your entry by putting 4 consecutive tildes (~) at the end of your entry.  Please do so, so we can get to know you.  As to your question, as Ruakh and M.Hardy said:  Two of the solutions are complex-valued functions (e with an i exponent).  Using Euler's formula, you can transform the complex functions to real-valued functions.  Although people discuss ODEs in terms of calculus, I think you can get more intuition for this type of transformation from linear algebra.  The idea is that your solution is composed of several functions that can be added up (linearly combined) to the complete solution.  You call these functions the basis for your solution.  Some of these functions might have characteristics that you don't like (such as functions that have complex values).  So you can transform them to other basis functions. [edit:  after all that I forgot to sign!!!] Tristanreid 17:31, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

Characteristic equation?
In the section Homogeneous Linear ODEs with constant coefficients, it defines F(z) as the characteristic equation of the differential equation. Can someone explain how that jump makes sense? Why is it that solving the roots of this polynomial magically points us towards an answer? &mdash;BenFrantzDale 23:47, September 12, 2005 (UTC)


 * Basically, since you know that exponentials have the property that their derivatives are nearly the same, you can just take an educated guess that some form of exponential is the solution to the diff eq. Plug the guess in to the diff eq, and you will see that the guess was right, but only if the exponential has a root of the characteristic polynomial in it.  For example, suppose I want to solve y&rsquo;&rsquo;-3y&rsquo;+2y=0.  I guess that the solution is an exponential, like y=erx, where r is some unknown coefficient.  If this is to be a solution, then I must have r2erx-3rerx+2erx=0, or (r2-3r+2)erx=0.  Since erx&ne;0, we have (r2-3r+2)=0.  Thus, r must be a root of the characteristic polynomial.  -Lethe | Talk 20:24, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
 * Aah. Thanks for clarifying. I may make some note of that in the article. About this "educated guessing", can you show that the set of these exponentials provides a basis for all solutions? Clearly the method works, but I'm not finding a proof that all solutions are of that form. Thanks. &mdash;BenFrantzDale 22:15, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
 * In fact, it won't get all of them, if there is a repeated root. Then you should try a guess like xerx, or higher powers if the root is repeated more often.  Once you have n independent solutions to an n-th order diff eq, you can be sure you have all of them.  -Lethe | Talk 22:38, 13 September 2005 (UTC)
 * I edited the page accordingly. I think it's pretty-much correct, and more clear to the uninitiated (or at least the rusty). Feel free to give it more polish, of course. &mdash;BenFrantzDale 23:23, 14 September 2005 (UTC)

Existance and nature
I just added an "existance and nature" section to the page. It could probably use a review by an diffeq expert.

One thing in particular, I coined the term "hybrid solution" to refer to a solution assembled piecewise from particular and singular solutions, though I've never seen that term used in literature. Any suggestions for a more standardized wording?

Baccala@freesoft.org 23:50, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

Please respect the editorial style of a discussion section
I've seen a lot of comments being added which ended up being a PitA to follow through or even understand. That happens because the commenter simply didn't followed the basic rules of adding comment. Let me mention a few of them.


 * If you start a fresh comment, write it in a different section.
 * Make it clear where the comment starts and where the comment ends (section, indentation, etc...)
 * Always. sign. your. comment!

There are other rules but these are the basic, have the biggest impact and were the ones which were lacking the most. If you are going to write a comment, please obbey them. It makes the life of who's reading the comments a lot easier and let's your voice be heard clearer. --Mecanismo 11:29, 3 December 2005 (UTC)

Vote for new external link
Here's my site full of ODE example problems. Someone please put it in the external links if you think it's helpful!

http://www.exampleproblems.com/wiki/index.php?title=Ordinary_Differential_Equations

please tell me
how to solve y'+cosxy=1/2sin2x &mdash;The preceding unsigned comment was added by HydrogenSu (talk &bull; contribs).


 * Meaning y'+(cosx)y=1/2(sin2)x or y'+cos(xy)=1/(2sin(2x)) or perhaps y'+(cosx)y=(1/2)sin(2x) ? Bo Jacoby 12:03, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

My guess is y'+cos(xy) = (1/2) sin(2x). Prime denote derivative wrt x. --Salix alba (talk) 12:19, 27 January 2006 (UTC)


 * The unknown function y is rarely argument to a cos, so my guess is the linear nonhomogenous equation y'+(cosx)y=(1/2)sin(2x), but we need to know. Bo Jacoby 12:31, 27 January 2006 (UTC)
 * Sorry but previous writting was not clear. Should be
 * $$y'+[cos(x)]*y=\frac{1}{2}sin(2x)$$


 * Thank you two gentlemen. &mdash;The preceding unsigned comment was added by HydrogenSu (talk &bull; contribs).

The formula of the article Ordinary differential equation gives
 * $$y=e^{- \sin x}\left(\int{\frac{1}{2}\sin (2x) e^{\sin x}dx} + C \right)$$

where C is an integration constant to be determined from the initial conditions. The integral remains to be reduced. Bo Jacoby 14:16, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Please don't write


 * $$y'+[cos(x)]*y=\frac{1}{2}sin(2x).$$

Instead, write


 * $$y'+[\cos(x)]\cdot y=\frac{1}{2}\sin(2x).$$

This not only de-italicizes "sin" and "cos" but also causes standard spacing conventions to be observed. Also, note that I did not use an asterisk to represent multiplication. Michael Hardy 22:56, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Bibliography: Self-references
Here, and mainly in many other math-related articles, User:Rea5, and other anonymous IPs (probably a dynamic IP) have been adding references to a book authored by Refaat El Ataar. This is not a notable math book (specially because it was edited in 2006!), so many users have been reverting those reference inclusions. Probably, it's a self-reference. (this may be coincidence but the user name Rea coincides with the initials of the author).

If you are the user who includes this references, please discuss it here first and explain why you think that book should be listed here. Otherwise, references to Refaat El Ataar books in this article will keep being removed.

--John C PI 14:40, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Relationship with Wikibooks
As a newcomer to the editing business, I'm confused about the relationship between an article on Differential Equations and the Wiki textbook on the subject. Looking at the ODE article as it stands, it appears that much of the material belongs in more systematic treatment, as in a textbook. What should appear in the main articel should be basic definitions, some explanation about why the topic is interesting or important, and references to further reading, such as an on-line textbook. With that in mind, I would propose to add some elementary material explaining some applications and maybe some simple techniques for obtaining solutions. The more intricate stuff should be stuck in the textbook. Donludwig 17:28, 23 February 2006 (UTC).


 * I agree, this page is unneccessarily huge - and largely unreadable. I came here looking for a quick reference for second order DEs, but found no help from this page. Fresheneesz 07:15, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

What are PDEs doing here?
Why is there a section on PDEs? The page title is ODEs! Please can someone who knows how to do this move the section on the history of PDEs to the PDEs page. (Or delete it entirely - it's not very good.)

- I agree completely. This page explains nothing. It is only readable to people who have no need for it. K Ackermann -

Forcing fuction
The FF dab page points here, but I can't see any FF info. Rich Farmbrough 12:23 26 June 2006 (GMT).
 * Since there still doesn't appear to be any discussion of Forcing Functions in this article, I'm going to remove the reference from the dab page. --Bdoserror 03:58, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Method of undetermined coefficients vs. method of annihilators
I noticed that the article on the Annihilator method simply redirects here. However, there doesn't seem to be enough of a discussion about annihilators on this page to justify that. Specifically, this page treats the method of undetermined coefficients and the method of annihilators as being synonymous, which I don't think is exactly the case. The method of annihilators can be used as part of undetermined coefficients, but I think they are separate processes. Indeed, the article on Method of undetermined coefficients doesn't even mention annihilators, and the examples on that page are accomplished differently than those given here. Unfortunately, I just don't know enough about the method of annihilators to feel comfortable changing the reference on this page, and maybe creating a bigger article for it. Does anyone have more information about the relationship between these two methods? Thank you, Rundquist 23:13, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

The derivative notation
In Part #1 of the introduction, the left side of the decay equation is worded as "the derivative of u, divided by the derivative of t", considering that the dx/dy form is just a formal notation and does not imply actual division shouldn`t it say "the derivative of u [as function of t]" ?


 * Yes. This is explicitly wrong. I will fix it for now, perhaps if someone can defend the previous revision, we will consider switching back. 48v 20:01, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

A little pedantic
Just above the section titled "Mathematical Definition" I feel the last line of the y equation should say $$if x \geq 2$$, rather than having focus on two, I just think people are used to the notation I'm suggesting and might accidently read it wrongly (like I did).--Ultimâ 10:30, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Intro simplified
This page was in a bad state, especially the introductory section which was full of advanced concepts and a complicated example. I have simplified it down to a basic introduction. I have also tried to improve the structure further down (up to first-order linear) but below there it is still a mess, for example variation of parameters is described twice. Paul Matthews 13:01, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

Scalar vs Vector ODEs
The article seems to deal only with scalar odes; INHO, it would be advantagous to stress the similarity with the vectorial case, and state in particular that higher-order odes can be recast as vector odes. --Benjamin.friedrich 10:33, 9 November 2006 (UTC)

Make article accessible to readers outside mathematics
When I read the article I personally do have the impression that it is a colorful mix of different topics; leaving the reader a bit confused about what an odes actually is. All of us visiting this discussion page probably know what an odes mathematically is, but how to define it as a concept of thinking? I think answering this question is important to make the article accessible for someone outside the quantitative sciences. The answer to this question determines the style of the article. A provisional list of answers could be


 * an equation one can do interesting math for
 * a vital tool to do physics
 * a historically important branch of mathematics
 * a clever way to define flows in state-space

The classification of ODEs and ways how to solve them now taking up much of the article in nicely written, but I am contemplating whether one should make them an extra article.

In my opinion it would be benificial for readers to stress right in the beginning some practical facts about ODEs such as
 * in most cases they have a unique solution whenever initial conditions are specified
 * in most cases it is impossible to find this solution analytically although centuries have been spent to solve odes
 * geometric thinking helps a lot when you deal with odes: often the independent variable is time, the dependent variable is the state of your mathematical object or physical system, and then the ode will tell you how your system will evolve
 * numerical integration is a standard procedure
 * the theory of odes was started by Newton, allowed impressively to predict planetary orbits and I dare to say boosted enlightning.

Please let us discuss these issues. --Benjamin.friedrich 10:58, 9 November 2006 (UTC)


 * I completely agree, it reads more like a textbook than an encyclopedic article. I will try to rewrite the article and put the focus on the core ideas instead of the examples. MathMartin 15:40, 1 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Good luck. What about putting reduction of dim, and linear odes into separate article? Then one could add some "philosophical" section on the extreme usfulness of ODES and obtain a nice article. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Benjamin.friedrich (talk • contribs) 15:50, 13 December 2006 (UTC).

Rewrite as of 11.12.2006
The article is currently in a very bad state. In order to add the material mentioned above we first have to clean up the article:
 * remove most of the worked out examples
 * move content not directly relevant to other articles
 * add core ideas and methods

I did some heavy editing today in order to accomplish these goals, but now I am tired. I will resume working on the article in the next few days so bear with me for a while. MathMartin 20:59, 11 December 2006 (UTC)


 * How long a few days can become :). I moved most of the example based discussion on linear differential equations to linear differential equations and added some general definitions and properties of such systems to this article. In the long run most of my new material should probably be moved to linear differential equation but for the moment the best place is this article.


 * I am really quite perplexed that this article has not received much attention in the last few months, considering this is not exactly a fringe topic. MathMartin 18:29, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

crap article
the example ODE given is totally confusing and whoever did it is stupid. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 195.137.7.241 (talk) 00:31, 19 December 2006 (UTC).

INTEGRA software
Someone has added a link to a UNAM program called INTEGRA. My concern is that she labeled it freeware, but included it in a section labeled Free Software. In fact, it was the only link in that section. Is integra FS, freeware, or what? I have followed the link, and an interface for the program is released under the GPL, but that's an interface, not the engine itself... Moreover, is this link even worth including in the Wikipedia? &mdash; Isilanes 16:36, 15 March 2007 (UTC)


 * I don't immediately see an argument for including this link. -- Jitse Niesen (talk) 05:22, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

a little help please
in the definition of the implicit form it says a function

F(x,y,y',y''...,yn)=0

is a differential equation with this function, it has n+2 variables, IMO independent variable, for it to be a function of n+2 variables lol. because y, y', y''... are all functions of x provided that they exist,

F(x,y,y',y''...,yn)=0

can simply be written as G(x)=0

so with the function F u must define the full domain of each of the independent variables. problem is if u do, for example in

x+yy'=0

(this can be written in F(x,y,z)=h by letting y'=z)

let x be in (3,4), y in (3,4), and y' in (3,4), u would miss out some of the solutions to this equation since it requires u to find all y=f(x) such as

x+f(x)f'(x)=0

i know my talk is confusing, so ill sum up my question,

Is function F in

F(x,y,y',y''...,yn)=0

(If we write F in its general form: F(x1,x2,x3,x4...x(n+2))=y, and let x1 be in set S1, x2 be in set S2 and so on)

really a function of n+2 independent variables such that if one finds another function y=f(x) and substitute x1 for x, x2 for y, x3 for y', x4 for y'' and so on

F(x,y,y',y''...,yn)=0

for all x in y=f(x) domain?

and conditions are that f(x) must be n times differentiable for all x in its domain, the set of x must be a subset of S1, the range of y must be a subset of S2, range of of y' must be a subset of S3 and so on or

F(x,y,y',y''...,yn)=0

mean simply some equation relating x,y,y',y''...yn? (this isnt even a concrete enough definition)

-Lol nub 23:23, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
 * The differental equation x+yy'=0 means that xdx+ydy=0 which integrates to the algebraic equation x2+y2=r2, where r is a constant of integration. It has the geometrical interpretation that if the tangent vector (dx,dy) is perpendicular to the radius vector (x,y), then the curve is a circle. The algebraic equation defines implicitely the solutions y=f(x)=sqrt(r2&minus;x2) and y=&minus;sqrt(r2&minus;x2). To generalize this example, define the function of three variables F(x,y,z)=x+yz, and identify the differential equation F(x,y,y')=0. The algebraic solution x2+y2=r2 can be written G(x,y,r)=0 where the function G is defined by G(x,y,r)=x2+y2&minus;r2. The solution with respect to y is y=f(x,r) where the function f is defined by f=sqrt(r2&minus;x2). Is this helping? Bo Jacoby 10:50, 16 April 2007 (UTC).


 * yes that does indeed clear my thinking, youve confirmed my thoughts, thanks for the help along the road :)-Lol nub 02:27, 17 April 2007 (UTC)

External Links - Proposal To Create "Related Software" Subsection
This is an appeal to the significant contributing editors of this article. I'd like to propose the addition of a subsection called "Related Software/Tutorials" or simply "Related Software" to the "External Links" section of the main article. This would be an area for a list of pointers to related educational and scientific software tools and/or tutorials available and dedicated to extending the information in this article and thereby the reader's understanding of this area of mathematics. A picture is worth a thousand words, and a software simulation is worth at least a thousand variables, if not more -- especially in mathematics, a discipline often saturated with theory. Visualization and simulation tools in this field are arguably, significantly contributive to the knowledge base and deepening of understanding in this realm. In fact, there are many solutions to many math equations/problems that would not be possible (and/or not as accurate) were it not for the advent and use of computers and software tools. Creating and having such a list available could help by serving as an additional related doorway to opportunities for readers of this article to learn more about this particular subject matter. Futhermore, I would propose the following initial population of such a subsection:


 * Move the existing external links "Differential Equations, S.O.S. Mathematics" (contents are available for purchase on CDROM) and "PottersWheel - A freely available MATLAB toolbox for creation of ODE models and fitting to experimental data" to the new "Related Software" subsection.


 * Add to the subsection a link to Phaser Scientific Software - A Universal Simulator For Dynamimcal Systems (models based on differential and difference equations). Available there are free fully functional evaluation versions of the software along with a version of the software that is free to use indefinitely, the Phaser Reader (which allows users to run any simulations created in Phaser). Also available there, under development, is a free collection of tutorials, simulations, and teaching modules; supported by the National Science Foundation.


 * Add to the subsection links to Mathematica and Maple (though these are heavily commercialized products, they are popularly used and important in the study of this field and others). Note, there are already internal wiki articles on those products.


 * And there are several others, but just to get the ball rolling here on this idea.

Thank you for your consideration and/or comments. -- SilverSurfer314 Wed Apr 25 18:33:31 EDT 2007.


 * I have checked your contributions to wikipedia [] and it seems you are mainly interested in promoting Phaser Scientific Software. As I can see from you talk page User:Isilanes has already argued with you about your edits. I agree completely with him and will revert your edits if you spam this article with your links. MathMartin 11:41, 26 April 2007 (UTC)


 * I am interested, at this particular point in time, in the educational value of the related academic and scientific resources available at phaser.com and their educationally-extending pertinence to several wikipedia articles (including this one) -- at this point in time, in part, this is my contribution. Additional resources such as these and others can and do help bring alive the world of mathematics in the minds and imaginations of interested parties, practitioners, students, and readers alike. My position, my overarching intention is the promotion of education, especially as related to mathematics and computational/visualization software based tools and tutorials; hence my proposal stated above (which by the way was put forward in the proper venue, this article's talk page).  Regardless of me or my intentions, the proposal/contribution itself should be evaluated which you have not done (or shared if you had) or directly addressed -- this is an important point of contention that I want to bring to your attention.  I appeal to your (the community) intellect for an academic discussion, and instead, in the face of the proposal, you have palpably chosen to accuse me of possibly spaming this article with a link and threatening editorial reversion. Nevertheless, thank you for your consideration: for discussion purposes, consider the proposal with phaser.com listed last, or alternatively from an even more neutral standpoint, consider the organizational and educationally-extending proposal (the creation of the related software subsection) without any initial population of links, and other folks can do the filling. Consider as well or instead the creation of a related ODE solver/visualization software/tutorial section in the main article. The application of such tools in this and other realms of mathematics has become instrumental in both education, analysis, research and development.  In parting, the point is about offering related information and/or resources to readers to help make more accessible what is oftentimes and otherwise very esoteric and intangible material without such visual aids/tools/simulations/tutorials. SilverSurfer314 Wed May  2 17:02:37 EDT 2007.


 * This is an encyclopaedia. As such, it's obviously an educational resource, but not everything which is useful educationally is fit to be included here. Particularly, we try hard not to become a collection of external links. There are many tools for solving and visualizing ODEs, and adding links to all of them would not make a good encyclopaedic article. The usual approach in situations like this is to find another article or web page that has an extensive collection of links (preferably with some discussion), and refer that instead. That's why I added a link to the DMOZ category. If anybody knows a better references, I'm open to suggestions. -- Jitse Niesen (talk) 00:35, 3 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Fair enough, and thank you for your reasonable response -- I think your link to DMOZ is a good idea/addition. I would still suggest as an improvement adding a section to this main article that briefly discusses the availability, application, and importance of such tools in the analysis and understanding of this area of mathematics.  SilverSurfer314 Thu May  3 10:46:48 EDT 2007

Typo?
In Section Definitions Subsection Ordinary differential equation last paragraph, last sentence reads: If r(x)=0 then we call the ... Should it read: If r(0)=0 then... ?


 * No. The equation is homogeneous only if the nonhomogeneous term $$r(x)$$ vanishes for all x. -- Jitse Niesen (talk) 02:29, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

Definitions section
I think the definitions section could make it more clear that y, y' and so are are functions of x. I'm still thinking about the best way to express it.Ac1201 (talk) 02:40, 14 January 2008 (UTC)


 * The definition starts with


 * Let y be an unknown function
 * $$y: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$$
 * in x


 * so it should be pretty clear y is a function in x. Usually in mathematics one writes y(x) to indicate y is dependent on x but in the field of ordinary differential equations it is custom to just write y, so I think we should stick with the most common notation. But I understand your concern as I was confused by this notation when first studying differential equations, so perhaps we should add some remarks which clarify the notation. MathMartin (talk) 12:54, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

There seems to be a contradiction in the definition section. y is said to be an unknown function,

$$y: \mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}.$$

But then F is defined as a function

$$F:\mathbb{R}^{n+1} \to \mathbb{R}$$

such that

$$F(x,y,y',\ \dots,\ y^{(n-1)})=y^{(n)}.$$

Either the domain of F is not

$$\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$$

but rather

$$\mathbb{R} \times \mathbb{F}_n \times \mathbb{F}_{n-1} \times \ \dots \times \mathbb{F}_1$$

(where $$\mathbb{F}_k$$ is the set of k-times differentiable functions from $$\mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$$) and the codomain of F is $$\mathbb{F}$$, the set of functions from $$\mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$$, or the symbol y has been tacitly redefined. If the meaning of y has changed, what has it changed to? If y, in the definition of F, stands for the value of the unknown function of x, then is the intended meaning

$$F:\mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R} \, \bigg| \, F(x,y(x),y'(x),\ \dots,\ y^{(n-1)}(x)) = y^n(x),$$

or

$$F:\mathbb{R}^{n} \to \mathbb{R} \, \bigg| \, F(x_0,y(x_1),y'(x_2),\ \dots,\ y^{(n-1)}(x_{n-1})) = y^n(x_n)$$

(where $$x_k$$ are all independent variables which take real number values)?

Dependent Variable (talk) 15:20, 30 December 2010 (UTC)

One suggestion...
The list of "classic" differential equations is remiss in not including the second-order differential equation for a single-degree-of-freedom system with damping, viz.,

m(d2x/dt2) + c(dx/dt) + kx = F(t)

While not as mathematically challenging as the other examples cited, it is the foundation for the understanding of vibratory systems. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.91.41.182 (talk) 03:38, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

why 'ordinary'?
are there extra-ordinary ones? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.11.196.206 (talk) 14:14, 7 February 2009 (UTC)

Stupid enough to ask...
Are you all sure that 'In general, the force F depends upon the position of the particle x(t) at time t'?

I mean if I am riding a bike down the street the force F travels with me and is constantly applied by my legs on the pedals. It doesn't vary based on what part of the street I am on?

Maybe I just need to be shown how Newton's Second Law leads to this differential equation? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.137.180.8 (talk) 21:48, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Oh wait I think I get it now...it is like going backwards from the idea of applying a force to an object moves the object. Instead you think of it like if an object was moved then how can I use the old and new positions to determine the force that was excerted on it. I think that is the right way to think of it...maybe. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.137.180.8 (talk) 14:40, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

pls tell me the differential equations of all circles in a plane having a fixed radius —Preceding unsigned comment added by Optomasp (talk • contribs) 15:27, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

Reduction to a first order system
I think the order of the arguments of F might be inconsequent. 131.180.16.252 (talk) 10:26, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

Terrible article
I'm sorry to say that this article is absolutely terrible and should be completely scrapped and rewritten. I'm a mathematics student who hasn't studied this subject in detail, but I know how maths should be explained, and if I could I would rewrite this article, and it would be a hell of a lot better than the current one, but unfortunately I don't really know to use Wikipedia (creating articles etc;), and I don't know how to insert maths text either. I don't know much about programming etc;

The article is completely useless to anyone who doesn't know everything about differential equations already, and even to those people who do, it would seem ridiculous because they would be able to write a better version anyway (I really am confused as to why someone hasn't). The person who wrote this article seems like a physicist to me, not just because of the obvious physics persuasion in the first paragraph, but the poor mathematical sense in which the article is structured. It doesn't even tell you how to solve a differential equation, it just blabs on about some rubbish which is utterly confusing and is completely useless information. The point of Wikipedia is to make information accessible to anyone and everyone, and articles should be attempted by those who can fulfil the following criteria: Someone who:

1. Understands the topic thoroughly, both theoretically and practically.

2. Has the ability to explain to others who may have minimum prior knowledge, and can understand difficulties others may have in understanding this particular subject. It's not just a way to show off how much you know.

3. IS A MATHEMATICIAN. i.e. not someone who has used maths before and thinks they've suddenly become Newton, like the guy who wrote this article.

A good way to rewrite this article, for those who do fulfil this criteria and know how to create articles, is to look at a Further maths textbook, especially the Edexcel FP1 book, as this is a very useful text for beginners. Also the Schaum's outlines are pretty decent too, to add some formal theory. Lines of explanation should be added to whatever is there in the textbooks, as well as a general talk about the usefulness of ODE's. Most importantly the CONCEPT of ODE's should be made clear. This is what I find the most useful about Wikipedia articles, the explanation of the concepts.

Someone please respond to these comments. Thank you. Shushanto BoseShushanto (talk) 01:19, 24 April 2010 (UTC)


 * Complaining about wikipedia article quality is seldom helpful. WP:SOFIXIT.  Dicklyon (talk) 15:19, 20 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Its true this article is poorly presented and needs work... I intend to sort it out when I get time... F = q(E+v×B) ⇄ ∑ici 14:28, 19 May 2012 (UTC)


 * The table of exact solutions has been added, as its better here than initially in differential equation. I'll be rewriting this in my sandbox, so if I remove content from this article it will be stored there. F = q(E+v×B) ⇄ ∑ici 10:07, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

Link to article on Examples of Differential Equations
PLEASE add a link to the article that's meant for us less advanced students. It must have been an oversight to omit this link from the bottom of the page where similar links are. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jojojlj (talk • contribs) 02:28, 14 February 2012 (UTC)