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Solving Second-Order ODEs by Variation

This document discusses solving a second-order ordinary differential equation to find a particular solution given two linearly independent solutions to the homogeneous equation. It shows that by imposing an additional condition on the Wronskian of the two solutions, the coefficients of the particular solution can be determined by simultaneously solving two equations, resulting in expressions involving the Wronskian that can be directly integrated to obtain the particular solution.

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Bhavani Chandra Unique
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117 views2 pages

Solving Second-Order ODEs by Variation

This document discusses solving a second-order ordinary differential equation to find a particular solution given two linearly independent solutions to the homogeneous equation. It shows that by imposing an additional condition on the Wronskian of the two solutions, the coefficients of the particular solution can be determined by simultaneously solving two equations, resulting in expressions involving the Wronskian that can be directly integrated to obtain the particular solution.

Uploaded by

Bhavani Chandra Unique
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

For a second-order ordinary differential equation,

(1)
Assume that linearly independent solutions

and

are known to the homogeneous equation

(2)
and seek

and

such that
(3)
(4)

Now, impose the additional condition that

(5)
so that
(6)
(7)
Plug

, and

back into the original equation to obtain

(8)
which simplifies to

(9)
Combing equations () and (9) and simultaneously solving for

and

then gives
(10)
(11)

where

(12)
is the Wronskian, which is a function of

only, so these can be integrated directly to obtain


(13)
(14)

which can be plugged in to give the particular solution

(15)
Generalizing to an th degree ODE, let
...,

, ...,

be the solutions to the homogeneous ODE and let

be chosen such that

(16)

and the particular solution is then

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