C FIRST ORDER

H
DIFFERENTIAL
A
P EQUATIONS
T
E 2.1
SOLUTION CURVES WITHOUT
R
THE SOLUTION

2
 2.1.1 Direction Fields

Examples (Zill & Wright Ex. 2.1 No

1, 3, 5, 7, 9)
 2.1.2 Autonomous First-Order
DEs
An ordinary differential equation in which
the independent variable does not appear
explicitly is said to be autonomous.
x denotes the independent variable
autonomous first-order DE can be
written as,
dy
f (y)
dx
 Example 1

dy
y y , y(0) y 0
3

dx
Sketch the graph of a typical solution
y(x) when
a y 0 1
b 0 y 0 1
c 1 y 0 0
d y 0 1
 Solution:
dy
y y 3 y(1 y 2 ) y(1 y)(1 y)
dx
The critical points are located at
y 1, y 0, dan y 1. The phase potrait is
shown below

(a)

(b)
(c)

(d)
 Note : y 0, y 1, and y 1 are the
constant solutions of the autonomous diff. eqn.
dy
y(1 y)(1 y).
dx

In general, if y = c is a critical point of the diff.
dy
eqn. f (y) , then y = c is a constant solution
dx
of the autonomous diff. eqn.

Example 2

Find the critical points and phase portrait of the

autonomous DE
dy
y 3y
2

dx
Classify each critical point as asymptotically stable,
unstable or semi-stable. Sketch typical solution
the xy-plane determined by the graphs of
curves in
the equilibrium solutions.
Solution
dy
To find the critical point, we solve 0 .
dx
dy
0
dx
y 3y 0
2

y(y 3) 0
y 0 or y 3
The critical points are 0 and 3.

 The phase portrait is

From the phase portrait we see that 0 is

asymptotically stable (attractor) and 3 is unstable
(repeller). Typical solution curves are shown below
Example 3
dy
(y 2) 4

dx
Solution:
To find the critical points, we solve
dy
0
dx
(y 2) 4 0
y 2
The critical point is 2.
The phase portrait is

From the phase portrait we see that 2 is semi-

stable. Typical solution curves are shown below
Example 4

Solution
(a) dv
m mg kv
dt
dv k mg
v
dt m k
dv
For the critical points, 0
dt
mg
v is a critical point.
k

The phase portrait is

mg
From the phase portrait, we see that is an
k
asymptotically stable critical point.
mg
Thus lim v i.e. the limiting, or terminal
t k
mg
velocity of the body is .
k
See typical solution curves below
 2
(b) If air resistance is proportional to v , then
we have
dv
m mg kv 2

dt
dv k mg

v 2

dt m k
k mg mg
v v
m k k
mg
The physically meaningful critical point is
k
The phase portrait is

mg
From the phase portrait, we see that is an
k
asymptotically stable critical point. Thus,
mg
lim v . The limiting, or terminal velocity
t k
mg
of the body is .
k