Kendriya Vidyalaya

Aizawl

Mesak Lalrinnunga

A BRIEF LOOK AT
DIFFERENTIAL
EQUATIONS
CERTIFICATE
It is hereby certified that Mesak Lalrinnunga of Class XII Science has
satisfactorily completed the Investigatory Project in the subject of
Mathematics on the topic

A BRIEF LOOK AT DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS

The work carried out to investigate about the subject matter and related data
collection is original and genuine and has been completed solely and
satisfactorily by the student.

Signature of I/C Teacher Signature of Student

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to our Principal in charge,
Jeanie R. Zoremsiami and our Math teacher, Y Badi Naran Singha, who both
have given me this wonderful opportunity to conduct this research, through
which I have gained and learned a lot of new information.

I would also like to thank Daniel Lalruatfela Sailo, student MBBS, All-India No.
1 in English AISSCE, for proof-reading this document for any errors and
mistakes in my grammar, claims and statements.
INTRODUCTION
How it all began
The world of mathematics wouldn’t be the same without the discovery of the
concept of Calculus. Both Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz independently
worked on this concept around the same time in the late 17th century. Leibniz
was the first to publish his investigations; however, Newton had started his
work several years prior to Leibniz and had already developed a theory of
tangents by the time Leibniz became interested in the question. So, who
actually discovered Calculus or ‘Infinitesimal Calculus’ as it’s officially called is
still to this date debatable, although it is more accepted that Isaac Newton was
the one who developed it.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 1965 Isaac Newton, 1689

Leibniz did a great deal of work in developing consistent and useful notation
and concepts. Newton provided some of the most important applications to
physics, especially of Integral Calculus.
The promising future of Mathematics
Mathematicians and Physicists saw the potential of Calculus. Since its first
introduction into the world, a lot of research has gone into improving and
applying Calculus into the modern world.

Calculus is the study of how things change. In today’s world, Calculus is

applied in many fields of Physics and Engineering, particularly in structural
engineering. It is used in medicines, biological research, economics,
architecture, statistics, and many other fields.

Differential Calculus and Equations

Differentiation is one of the two important concepts of Calculus. It deals with
finding the instantaneous rate of change in a function. It is generally expressed
as

𝜹𝒇(𝒙) 𝜹𝒚
or
𝜹𝒙 𝜹𝒙

As we have stated before, calculus has many applications, out of which, we

will briefly study the concept and the significance of Differential Equations,
which is an application of Differentiation, or otherwise known as Differential
Calculus.
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
The basics
Consider the following:

𝜹𝒚 𝜹²𝒚
+ 𝒙=𝟏 , + 𝒔𝒊𝒏 𝒙 = 𝒄𝒐𝒔 𝒚
𝜹𝒙 𝜹𝒙²
These equations both contain a derivative term and are so called differential
Equations. So we can say that a differential equation is an equation which
consists of a derivative of a variable with respect to another variable in the
equation.

Significance
The importance of differential equations may be hard to think at first, but we
will come to learn that they have a surprisingly wide variety of uses.

• It is used to calculate the movement or flow of electricity

• It is used to calculate the to and fro motion i.e. vibration of an object

• It is used in explaining thermodynamics

• Determining rate of growth of diseases

• Determining rate of different orders of chemical reactions

and so much more. So, from the above examples, we can understand that
differential equations play a huge role in the modern world.
BIBLIOGRAPHY

https://math.mit.edu/~djk/calculus_beginners/chapter00/section02.html#:~:text=Calculus%20is%20the%20s
tudy%20of,the%20predictions%20of%20such%20models.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_calculus#:~:text=Infinitesimal%20calculus%20was%20developed%
20in,death%20of%20Leibniz%20in%201716.

https://byjus.com/maths/differential-equations-
applications/#:~:text=Ordinary%20differential%20equations%20applications%20in,of%20diseases%20in%2
0graphical%20representation.