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We will use x, rather than t, to denote the independent variable in this section. Different letters are frequently used for the variables in a differential equation. A separable equation can be solved by integrating the functions M and N.

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15 views1 page

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We will use x, rather than t, to denote the independent variable in this section. Different letters are frequently used for the variables in a differential equation. A separable equation can be solved by integrating the functions M and N.

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anonymousscribd
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2.2 Separable Equations In Sections 1.2 and 2.

1 we used a process of direct integration to solve first order linear equations of the form where a and b are constants. We will now show that this process is actually applicable to a much larger class of equations. We will use x, rather than t, to denote the independent variable in this section for two reasons. In the first place, different letters are frequently used for the variables in a differential equation, and you should not become too accustomed to using a single pair. In particular, x often occurs as the independent variable. Further, we want to reserve t for another purpose later in the section. The general first order equation is Linear equations were considered in the preceding section, but if Eq. (2) is nonlinear, then there is no universally applicable method for solving the equation. Here, we consider a subclass of first order equations that can be solved by direct integration. To identify this class of equations, we first rewrite Eq. (2) in the form M(x,y)+N(x,y)dy =0. (3) It is always possible to do this by setting M(x, y) = f (x, y) and N(x, y) = 1, but there may be other ways as well. If it happens that M is a function of x only and N is a function of y only, then Eq. (3) becomes Such an equation is said to be separable, because if it is written in the differential form then, if you wish, terms involving each variable may be placed on opposite sides of the equation. The differential form (5) is also more symmetric and tends to suppress the distinction between independent and dependent variables. A separable equation can be solved by integrating the functions M and N. We illustrate the process by an example and then discuss it in general for Eq. (4).

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