Example 1.

Write the general solution for the following homogeneous equations:

i. y

5y =0,
ii. y

2y =0,
iii. y

+4y =0, y(0) =0, y

(0) =1
iv. y

+3y

+2y =0, y(0) =1, y

(0) =0.
The above equations can be solved as follows.
i. The characteristic equation is r 5 =0 that gives r =5 and therefore for any c R the solution is
y(x) =ce
5x
.
ii. The characteristic equation is r
2
2 =0 that gives r = 2

and therefore
y(x) =Ae
2

x
+Be
2

x
.
iii. The characteristic equation is r
2
+4 =0 that gives r =2i and therefore the general solution is
y(x) =Ae
2ix
+Be
2ix
,
or equivalently using Euler formula e
ix
=cos (x) +i sin (x) we can write the solution as
y(x) =Acos (2x) +B sin (2x).
Apply the initial condition and obtain A=0 and B =1/2, therefore
y(x) =
1
2
sin (2x).
iv. The characteristic equation is r
2
+3r +2 =0 that gives r =2, 1 and therefore
y(x) =Ae
2x
+Be
2x
.
Apply the initial condition and obtain A=B =1/2 and nally
y(x) =
1
2
e
2x
+
1
2
e
2x
.
Example 2. Write the general solutions of the following equations
i. y

5y

+4y =2e
3x
3e
4x
ii. y

+9y =sin (2x) +cos (3x) +x

iii. y

+3y

+2y =x
2
+2e
2x
i. The homogeneous solution is
y
h
(x) =c
1
e
x
+c
2
e
4x
.
1
Since e
4x
in the right hand side is a part of homogeneous solution then y
p
has the following form:
y
p
(x) =
1
e
3x
+
2
xe
4x
Plug in the y
p
into the equation and match coecients to get
1
=1 and
2
=1, and then
y(x) =c
1
e
x
+c
2
e
4x
e
3x
xe
4x
ii. The homogeneous solution is
y(x) =c
1
sin (3x) +c
2
cos (3x)
and then the form of y
p
is as
y
p
(x) =Asin (2x) +B cos (2x) +x(C sin (3x) +Dcos (3x)) +Ex+F
Plug in y
p
into the equation and obtain
y(x) =c
1
sin (3x) +c
2
cos (3x) +
1
9
x+
1
5
sin (2x) +
1
6
sin (3x)
iii. The Homogeneous solution is
y(x) =c
1
e
2x
+c
2
e
x
and the form of y
p
is
y
p
(x) =Ax
2
+Bx +C +Exe
2x
and then
y(x) =c
1
e
2x
+c
2
e
x
+
1
4
(2x
2
6x +7) 2xe
2x
2