Auxiliary equations

SUMMARY SHEET FOR METHOD OF UNDETERMINED

COEFFICIENTS
90
This method allows us to find a particular solution for linear, second-order, nonhomogeneous differential equation with constant coefficients
ay' '+by'+cy = f (t)

1. First solve the complimentary (homogeneous) equation ay' '+by'+cy = 0 for yc (t )

2. The method of undetermined coefficients works for simple forcing functions f
(t), e.g. f (t )= Asin t, B cos t, Ceat , Dteat , Et n , Feat cos t, Geat sin t , etc.
If f (t ) = f1(t ) + f2 (t ) + ... + fn (t ), where there are n different functions, fi (t ) of the
above form, then we solve n non-homogeneous equations:

ay''+by'+cy = fi (t )

4. For each
fi (t ), assume a solution y p , consisting of a similar sin(

), cos( ), exp( ) or polynomial.

If fi (t ) is a solution to the homogeneous equation ay' '+by'+cy = 0

(i.e. yp contains part or all of

yc), then the assumed form of y p (t )

below is multiplied by t.

fi (t )

y p (t ) (assumed form)

t +a
t n 1

++ a t + a

n1
1
0

eat

Ae

at

sin t or
cos t
A sin t + B cos t

t neat

(ant n + an1t n1 +..+ a1t + a ) eat

0

t sin t

or
n

t cos t

(a
n

t +a
t
0

n1

+..+ a t + a

)sin t +

n1

(b t n +b
t n1

+..+ b t +b

)cos t

n1
1
0

at

e sin t
or
at

e cos t
at

at

a e sin t + b e cos t

n at

t e sin t

n at

or t e cos t

(a n t n + an1t n 1 +..+ a1t + a )eat sin t +

0

(b t n +b
t n 1
+..+b t +b

)eat cos t

n 1
1
0

Find the coefficients for the particular solution y p (t ) for each fi (t) by substituting
into the differential equation and equating coefficient of like terms. The particular
solution is then the sum of the y p ' s
Add the particular solution y p (t ) to the complementary solution yc (t ) to get the
general solution.

Variation of parameter

Applications, free vibration

Forced Vibration
LRC circuit
Systems of linear equations examples

Laplace transform method

Properties of Laplace transform
Inverse Laplace transform
Partial Fraction Method