University of Nottingham School of Mathematical Sciences

G12DEF

Dierential Equations and Fourier Analysis

Submission Date: Tuesday, 1 March 2011 Assignment 1 The following exercises are to be used for coursework assessment in the module G12DEF. Credit will be given for relevant working associated with solving the problems as well as the answer. Please submit this assignment on or before the submission date above, using the hand-in boxes on level B of the Pope building or level C of the Maths/ Physics building. You must ll in a coursework cover sheet, staple it to your work, and date-stamp it using the machine provided, before placing your work in the box. Cover sheets are available next to the hand-in boxes. 1. Consider the linear, second order equation d2 y dy + 2x + (x3 + 1)y = 0 dx2 dx (a) Using a series solution of the form

y(x) =
n=0

an x n

show that if this series is a solution of the above equation, the coecients an obey the (2j+1)aj +aj3 [14] recurrence aj+2 = (j+2)(j+1) , for j 3. (b) Two functions y0 (x) and y1 (x) are dened as the solutions subject to the following initial conditions y0 (0) = 1 y0 (0) = 0 y1 (0) = 0 y1 (0) = 1 Find the rst 4 non-zero terms in the series for each of these solutions. 2. This question involves writing the function f (x) = That is writing

[14]

|x| as a sum over Legendre polynomials.

|x| =
n=0

an Pn (x),

(1)

where Pn (x) is the nth Legendre polynomial. Our aim is to nd the an s. (a) Apply the orthogonality relationship 1 Pn (x)Pm (x)dx = that the an are given by the following integral am = 2m + 1 2
1 1 2nm 2n+1

to equation (1) to show

|x|Pm (x)dx
1

Question continues overleaf.

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(b) Find the rst three non-zero an s. Hint: |x| is an even function. The rst few Legendre polynomials are P0 (x) = 1, P1 (x) = x, 1 (3x2 1), P2 (x) = 2 1 (5x3 3x), P3 (x) = 2 1 P4 (x) = (35x4 30x2 + 3). 8 (The maximum marks for each section are denoted in brackets [ ].)

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RSG G12DEF 2010-2011 DEFCW1.tex December 16, 2010