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Separable Differential Equations

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IG
Created by

Barbara Forrest and Brian Forrest

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PY
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Separable Differential Equations

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Question: How do we solve the differential equation

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y 0 = x(y 2 + 1)?

Note: We saw that the function

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x2

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y = tan( )
2
satisfies the above equation but how did we discover this?
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We can divide by y 2 + 1 to get
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y0
=x
y2 + 1
Integrating both sides with respect to x gives
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y0
Z Z
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dx = x dx
y2 + 1
Separable Differential Equations

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Question Cont’d: How do we solve the differential equation

y 0 = x(y 2 + 1)?

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Since y = y(x), we can apply the Change of Variables theorem get that

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y0
Z Z
1
dx = y 0 (x) dx

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y2 + 1 (y(x))2 + 1
Z
1
= dy
y2 + 1
R = arctan(y)
PY
Hence
x2
Z
arctan(y) = x dx = +C
2
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Solving for y in terms of x gives us

x2
C

y = tan( + C)
2
Separable Differential Equations

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Definition: [Separable Differential Equation]

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We say that a first order differentiable equation is separable if there exists
functions f = f (x) and g = g(y) such that the equation can be written
in the form

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y 0 = f (x)g(y)

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Example:
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1. y 0 = x(y 2 + 1) is separable. In this case,
f (x) = x and g(y) = y 2 + 1
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2. y 0 = y is separable. In this case,
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f (x) = 1 and g(y) = y

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3. y 0 = cos(xy) is not separable.

Solving Separable Differential Equations

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Question: How do we solve a separable differential equation

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y 0 = f (x)g(y)

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Step 1: Finding all constant solutions.

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Suppose that y0 ∈ R is such that

g(y0 ) = 0

Let
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φ(x) = y0
for all x ∈ R. Then

φ 0 (x) = 0 = f (x)g(y0 ) = f (x)g(φ(x))

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for each x ∈ R.
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Solving Separable Differential Equations

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Definition: [Constant Solutions to Separable DE’s]
If

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y 0 = f (x)g(y)
is a separable differential equation and if y0 ∈ R is such that g(y0 ) = 0,
then
R φ(x) = y0
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is called a constant or equilibrium solution to the differential equation.
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Solving Separable Differential Equations

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Example: Find all constant solutions to the equation

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y 0 = y(1 − y)
Solution : We have

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f (x) = 1 and g(y) = y(1 − y)

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Therefore, g(y0 ) = 0 if

y0 = 0 or y0 = 1
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The constant solutions are
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ϕ(x) = 0 or ψ(x) = 1

for all x ∈ R.
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Note: The separable differential equation

y 0 = x(y 2 + 1)
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has no constant solutions since y 2 + 1 > 0 for all y ∈ R.

Solving Separable Differential Equations

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Step 2: Finding all implicit solutions.
When g(y) 6= 0, we can divide by g(y) to get

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y0
= f (x)
g(y)
Integrating both sides with respect to x gives

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y0
Z Z
dx = f (x) dx

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g(y)
Since y = y(x), the Change of Variables Theorem gives

y0
Z Z
1
R g(y)
dx =
Z
g(y(x))
1
y 0 (x) dx
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= dy
g(y)

Hence Z Z
1
G(y) = dy = f (x) dx = F (x) + C
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g(y)
The expression
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G(y) = F (x) + C
is called an implicit solution to our equation.
Solving Separable Differential Equations

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Step 3: Finding all explicit solutions.
Given the equation

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1
Z Z

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G(y) = dy = f (x) dx = F (x) + C
g(y)

our last step is to try and solve the implicit equation

R G(y) = F (x) + C
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for y in terms of x to get our explicit solutions.
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Solving Separable Differential Equations

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Example: Find all solutions to the equation

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y 0 = (x + 1)y

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Step 1: Since g(y) = y , the only y0 such that g(y0 ) = 0 is y0 = 0.
Therefore,

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y(x) = 0
is the only constant solution.

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Step 2: If y 6= 0, we have
Z
1
Z
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dy = (x + 1) dx
y
so
x2
ln(| y |) = +x+C
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2
where C is an arbitrary constant.
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Solving Separable Differential Equations

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Step 3: Since
x2
ln(| y |) = +x+C

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2
we get
|y| = eln(|y|)
x2

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+x+C
= e 2

x2
= eC e 2
+x

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x2 +x
= C1 e 2

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where C1 = eC > 0.
However,
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x2 +x
| y |= C1 e 2

means that
x2 +x
y = ±C1 e 2
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x2 +x
= C2 e 2
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where C2 = ±C1 6= 0.
Solving Separable Differential Equations

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Remark: The solutions to the equation

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y 0 = (x + 1)y

are either the constant solution

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y(x) = 0

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or the solutions of the form
x2
+x
y = Ce 2

where C 6= 0.
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Observe that
x2
+x
y =0=0·e 2

so in this example all solutions are of the form

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x2
+x
y = Ce 2
C

where C ∈ R.
Solving Separable Differential Equations

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Remark: It may not be immediately obvious that an differential equation
is separable. For example

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y 0 = xy + y

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does not immediately look separable.

However the equation can be rewritten as

R y 0 = (x + 1)y
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so it is separable with

f (x) = x + 1 and g(y) = y

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Solving Separable Differential Equations

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Solving the separable differential equation

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y 0 = f (x)g(y)

Step 1: Determine whether the DE is separable. You may have to

factor the DE to identify f (x) and g(y).

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Step 2: Determine the constant solution(s) by finding all the values y0 such that

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g(y0 ) = 0. For each such y0 , the constant function

y = y(x) = y0

is a solution.
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Step 3: If g(y) 6= 0, integrate both sides of the following equation
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Z Z
1
dy = f (x) dx
g(y)
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to solve the differential equation implicitly.

Step 4: Solve the implicit equation from Step 3 explicitly for y in terms of x.
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Step 5: [Optional] Check your solution by differentiating y to determine if this

derivative does satisfy the original equation.