Lecture 3

First Order ODEs - Separable Equations

NAZIR MAFAKHERI
First Order ODEs – Separable Equations
In this section we will use 𝑥, rather than 𝑡, to denote the independent
variable, because different letters are frequently used for the variables in
a differential equation, and you should not become too accustomed to
using a single pair.

if equation (1) is nonlinear, then there is no universally applicable

method for solving the equation
First Order ODEs – Separable Equations
What should we do to identify this class of equations?
If 𝑓(𝑥,𝑦) in equation (1) is such that it can be written as a function of 𝑥
over a function of 𝑦, or in other words, if we can find functions like 𝑀(𝑥)
and 𝑁(𝑦) for which we have:
Why do we call such an equation separable?
Because if we can write 𝑓(𝑥,𝑦) in the form (2), then if we wish, our ODE in
(1) can be written in such a form that terms involving each variable are
placed on opposite sides of the equation or separated:
First Order ODEs – Separable Equations
How do we solve a separable equation?
If we know that our equation is separable we try to separate terms
involving each variable to get an equation in the form (3) then we
integrate both sides.Examples of separable and non-separable first order
ODEs:
First Order ODEs – Separable Equations

• Notice! We could also say that a first order ODE is separable if (maybe after some
algebraic operations) it can be written in such a form that terms involving each variable
are separated; as we see in equation (3).
• We see that in equations (4), (5) and (6) after some algebraic operations we are able to
separate terms involving 𝑦 and 𝑥 (results written in blue) so those are separable equations.
But for equation (7) we can’t separate terms involving 𝑦 and 𝑥 so it’s not separable.
First Order ODEs – Separable Equations Example 1
Show that the equation. is separable, and then find the general solution
for it.

Solution: Equation (8) is obviously separable because

is already written as a function of 𝑥 over a function of 𝑦. Now to solve it we
can write: