Differential Equations

Copyright © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

9.2 Direction Fields and Euler's Method

Copyright © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Direction Fields and Euler's Method
Unfortunately, it’s impossible to solve most differential
equations in the sense of obtaining an explicit formula for
the solution.

In this section we show that, despite the absence of an

explicit solution, we can still learn a lot about the solution
through a graphical approach (direction fields) or a
numerical approach (Euler’s method).

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Direction Fields

4
Direction Fields
Suppose we are asked to sketch the graph of the solution
of the initial-value problem

y = x + y y(0) = 1

We don’t know a formula for the solution, so how can we

possibly sketch its graph? Let’s think about what the
differential equation means.

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Direction Fields
The equation y  = x + y tells us that the slope at any point
(x, y) on the graph (called the solution curve) is equal to the
sum of the x- and y-coordinates of the point (see Figure 1).

A solution of y  = x + y
Figure 1

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Direction Fields
In particular, because the curve passes through the point
(0, 1), its slope there must be 0 + 1 = 1. So a small portion
of the solution curve near the point (0, 1) looks like a short
line segment through (0, 1) with slope 1. (See Figure 2.)

Beginning of the solution curve through (0, 1)

Figure 2
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Direction Fields
As a guide to sketching the rest of the curve, let’s draw
short line segments at a number of points (x, y) with slope
x + y. The result is called a direction field and is shown in
Figure 3.

Direction field for y  = x + y

Figure 3
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Direction Fields
For instance, the line segment at the point (1, 2) has slope
1 + 2 = 3.

The direction field allows us to visualize the general shape

of the solution curves by indicating the direction in which
the curves proceed at each point.

Now we can sketch the solution

curve through the point (0, 1) by
following the direction field as in
Figure 4.

The solution curve through (0, 1)

Figure 4 9
Direction Fields
Notice that we have drawn the curve so that it is parallel to
nearby line segments.

In general, suppose we have a first-order differential

equation of the form
y  = F (x, y)

where F (x, y) is some expression in x and y. The differential

equation says that the slope of a solution curve at a point
(x, y) on the curve is F (x, y).

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Direction Fields
If we draw short line segments with slope F (x, y) at several
points (x, y), the result is called a direction field (or slope
field).

These line segments indicate the direction in which a

solution curve is heading, so the direction field helps us
visualize the general shape of these curves.

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Example 1
(a) Sketch the direction field for the differential equation
y  = x2 + y2 – 1.

(b) Use part (a) to sketch the solution curve that passes
through the origin.

Solution:
(a) We start by computing the slope at several points in the
following chart:

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Example 1 – Solution cont’d

Now we draw short line segments with these slopes at

these points. The result is the direction field shown in
Figure 5.

Figure 5

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Example 1 – Solution cont’d

(b) We start at the origin and move to the right in the

direction of the line segment (which has slope –1).

We continue to draw the solution curve so that it moves

parallel to the nearby line segments.

The resulting solution curve
is shown in Figure 6.

Returning to the origin, we

draw the solution curve to
the left as well.

Figure 6
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Direction Fields
Now let’s see how direction fields give insight into physical
situations.

The simple electric circuit shown in Figure 9 contains an

electromotive force (usually a battery or generator) that
produces a voltage of E (t) volts (V) and a current of I (t)
amperes (A) at time t.

Figure 9 15
Direction Fields
The circuit also contains a resistor with a resistance of
R ohms and zan inductor with an inductance of
L henries (H).

Ohm’s Law gives the drop in voltage due to the resistor as

RI. The voltage drop due to the inductor is L(dI/dt). One of
Kirchhoff’s laws says that the sum of the voltage drops is
equal to the supplied voltage E(t). Thus we have

which is a first-order differential equation that models the

current I at time t.
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Direction Fields
A differential equation of the form
y  = f (y)
in which the independent variable is missing from the right
side, is called autonomous.

For such an equation, the slopes corresponding to two

different points with the same y-coordinate must be equal.

This means that if we know one solution to an autonomous

differential equation, then we can obtain infinitely many
others just by shifting the graph of the known solution to the
right or left.
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Euler’s Method

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Euler’s Method
The basic idea behind direction fields can be used to find
numerical approximations to solutions of differential
equations.

We illustrate the method on the initial-value problem

that we used to introduce direction fields:
y = x + y y(0) =1

The differential equation tells us that y (0) = 0 + 1 = 1, so

the solution curve has slope 1 at the point (0, 1).

As a first approximation to the solution we could use the

linear approximation L (x) = x + 1.
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Euler’s Method
In other words, we could use the tangent line at (0, 1) as a
rough approximation to the solution curve (see Figure 12).

Euler’s idea was to improve on this approximation by

proceeding only a short distance along this tangent line and
then making a midcourse correction by changing direction
as indicated by the direction field.

First Euler approximation

Figure 12 20
Euler’s Method
Figure 13 shows what happens if we start out along the
tangent line but stop when x = 0.5. (This horizontal distance
traveled is called the step size.)

Since L(0.5) = 1.5, we have y(0.5)  1.5 and we take

(0.5, 1.5) as the starting point for a new line segment.

Euler approximation with step size 0.5

Figure 13 21
Euler’s Method
The differential equation tells us that y (0.5) = 0.5 + 1.5 = 2,
so we use the linear function
y = 1.5 + 2(x – 0.5) = 2x + 0.5
as an approximation to the solution for x > 0.5 (the green
segment in Figure 13).

If we decrease the step

size from 0.5 to 0.25,
we get the better Euler
approximation shown in
Figure 14.
Euler approximation with step size 0.25
Figure 14 22
Euler’s Method
In general, Euler’s method says to start at the point given
by the initial value and proceed in the direction indicated by
the direction field.

Stop after a short time, look at the slope at the new

location, and proceed in that direction.

Keep stopping and changing direction according to the

direction field.

Euler’s method does not produce the exact solution to an

initial-value problem—it gives approximations.
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Euler’s Method
But by decreasing the step size (and therefore increasing
the number of midcourse corrections), we obtain
successively better approximations to the exact solution.
(Compare Figures 12, 13, and 14.)

Figure 12 Figure 13 Figure 14

For the general first-order initial-value problem

y  = F (x, y), y(x0) = y0, our aim is to find approximate values
for the solution at equally spaced numbers x0, x1 = x0 + h,
x2 = x1 + h,…, where h is the step size. 24
Euler’s Method
The differential equation tells us that the slope at (x0, y0) is
y  = F (x0, y0), so Figure 15 shows that the approximate
value of the solution when x = x1 is
y1 = y0 + hF (x0, y0)

Similarly,
y2 = y1 + hF (x1, y1)

In general, Figure 15

yn = yn–1 + hF (xn–1, yn–1)

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Euler’s Method

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Example 3
Use Euler’s method with step size 0.1 to construct a table
of approximate values for the solution of the initial-value
problem
y = x + y y(0) = 1
Solution:
We are given that h = 0.1, x0 = 0, y0 = 1, and F (x, y) = x + y.
So we have
y1 = y0 + hF(x0, y0) = 1 + 0.1(0 + 1) = 1.1
y2 = y1 + hF(x1, y1) = 1.1 + 0.1(0.1 + 1.1) = 1.22
y3 = y2 + hF(x2, y2) = 1.22 + 0.1(0.2 + 1.22) = 1.362
This means that if y (x) is the exact solution, then
y(0.3)  1.362. 27
Example 3 – Solution cont’d

Proceeding with similar calculations, we get the values in

the table:

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Euler’s Method
For a more accurate table of values in Example 3 we could
decrease the step size.

But for a large number of small steps the amount of

computation is considerable and so we need to program a
calculator or computer to carry out these calculations.

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Euler’s Method
The following table shows the results of applying Euler’s
method with decreasing step size to the initial-value
problem of Example 3.

Notice that the Euler estimates in the table seem to be

approaching limits, namely, the true values of y(0.5) and
y(1).
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Euler’s Method
Figure 16 shows graphs of the Euler approximations with
step sizes 0.5, 0.25, 0.1, 0.05, 0.02, 0.01, and 0.005.

They are approaching the exact solution curve as the

step size h approaches 0.

Euler approximations approaching the exact solution

Figure 16
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