Talk:Separation of variables/Archive 1

Change
Before:


 * In mathematics, separation of variables is any of several methods of solving ordinary and partial differential equations, in which algebra allows to re-write an equation so that each of two variables occurs on only side of the equation and the other does not.

After:


 * In mathematics, separation of variables is any of several methods for solving ordinary and partial differential equations, in which algebra allows one to re-write an equation so that each of two variables occurs on only one side of the equation.

I have a problem with this edit. Suppose the equation is


 * $$xy' + (y'')^2 = x^3.\,$$

This trivially becomes


 * $$xy' + (y'')^2 - x^3 = 0.\,$$

Then clearly each of the two variables occurs on only one side of the equation. But the variables have not been separated! Michael Hardy 02:43, 9 February 2006 (UTC)


 * ? I edited the copy of that sentence, not the content.  It seems to me that neither the before nor the after clearly defines separation of variables. Starwiz 17:02, 18 February 2006 (UTC)