ENGINEERING SCIENCE 21

MATHEMATICAL METHODS
IN ENGINEERING
First Order Linear Differential Equation
(FOLDE)

Prepared by: JRTLustro

Linear ODEs
Special type of inexact ODEs having a
specific form for its integrating factor. An
FODE can be classified as linear if it can be
converted to the following form:
𝑑𝑦
+ 𝑃 𝑥 𝑦 = 𝑄(𝑥)
𝑑𝑥
Multiplying the integrating factor μ(x)
to the linear equation makes the
equation exact.
𝑑𝑦 𝑑
𝜇 𝑥 +𝜇 𝑥 𝑃 𝑥 𝑦 =𝜇 𝑥 𝑄 𝑥 = (𝜇 𝑥 𝑦)
𝑑𝑥 𝑑𝑥

To determine the integrating factor, we

take one equality from the above
equation.
 𝑑𝑦 𝑑
𝜇 𝑥 +𝜇 𝑥 𝑃 𝑥 𝑦= (𝜇 𝑥 𝑦)
𝑑𝑥 𝑑𝑥

𝑑𝑦 𝑑𝑦 𝑑(𝜇 𝑥 )
𝜇 𝑥 +𝜇 𝑥 𝑃 𝑥 𝑦 =𝜇 𝑥 + 𝑦
𝑑𝑥 𝑑𝑥 𝑑𝑥

𝑑(𝜇 𝑥 )
𝜇 𝑥 𝑃 𝑥 =
𝑑𝑥

𝑑(𝜇 𝑥 )
𝑃 𝑥 𝑑𝑥 =
𝜇 𝑥
Integrating both sides,

ln 𝜇 𝑥 = 𝑃 𝑥 𝑑𝑥

Therefore, the integrating factor is now

𝑷 𝒙 𝒅𝒙
𝝁 𝒙 =𝒆
To determine the solution to the DE,
use the other equality
𝑑
𝜇 𝑥 𝑄 𝑥 = (𝜇 𝑥 𝑦)
𝑑𝑥
Integrating this equation directly yields

𝜇 𝑥 𝑦= 𝜇 𝑥 𝑄 𝑥 𝑑𝑥
Therefore, the solution form to
linear FODEs is the following:

𝜇 𝑥 𝑄 𝑥 𝑑𝑥 + 𝑐
𝑦=
𝜇(𝑥)