Problem Sheet 6. ODEs and separation of variables.

For the tutorial on March 21st.

Make sure you can do questions 3,5,6 and can at least set up problem 7.
The second Course Test will take place during the tutorial on Friday 28th March. The
test will cover the the material from Problem Sheets 46. In other words, the Chapters on
Matrices (including Simultaneous Equations and Determinants) as well as solving ODEs
by Separation of Variables.

1. . Solve the following integrals, using an appropriate substitution:

Z p
Z p
2
(a)
1 x dx
(b)
9 x2 dx
Z
1

(c)
dx
4 + x2
Comments: These will not appear on the exams in this course, but are important for later courses.
Please make sure that you can do these and discuss them with you tutor if necessary. These may
be tricky if you have not seen this before: For part (a) try the substitution x = sin(y). The point is
that this substitution helps simplify the square root. Try something similar for the other parts. The
double angle formula cos(2) = 2 cos2 () 1 might be useful later on.
2. By separating the variables if necessary, find the general solutions of the following first order differential equations, where z 0 stands for
dy
(a) y dx

dz
dx :

(b) z 0

cos(x),

xz cos(x).

3. Solve the following initial value problems:

(a) y 0 = y 2 sin(1 + x), and y = 1/2 when x = 1,
(b) uu0 = eu , and u = 0 when x = 0.

4. (a) The rate at which a radioactive substance decays is proportional to the number N of atoms
present at time t. If the constant of proportionality is (the decay constant), find the differential
equation governing how N varies. If initially there are N0 atoms present, express N as a function
of t.

(b) Find the time taken for half the atoms to decay. (This is called the half-life of the substance;
you should notice that it depends on the decay constant but not on N0 .)
(c) The half-life of plutonium-239 is 24,000 years. What is its decay constant (expressed in % per
year), and how long does it take for a mass of plutonium-239 to decay by 10%?

5. I place a cup of coffee on the windowsill at 10am, at which point the temperature of the coffee is
100 C. The air temperature is 28 C. After 5 minutes the temperature of the coffee is 93 . How
much longer before the coffee temperature drops to 85 ?

6. When a particle is moving at low speed the force due to air resistance is proportional to its velocity
(thus the acceleration due to air resistance equals kv/m where v is the velocity, m the mass and
k is the constant of proportionality in the appropriate units).
Set up and solve a differential equation that describes the movement of a particle falling to earth;
this should be a differential equation for

dv
dt ,

where v is the velocity of the particle, and the particle

is subject to forces (and hence acceleration) due to both gravity and air resistance.
You can assume that m = 1 kilogram, the acceleration due to gravity is 9.81metre/sec2 and
k = 0.2kilogram/sec, and also that the particle started at rest. What is the terminal velocity of
the particle?
7. Repeat the last question, except that now the initial velocity of the particle is 10, 000m/s. As
the velocity is high, the force due to air resistance is proportional to the square of the velocity;
k 2
thus the acceleration due to air resistance equals m
v . You may assume that the constant of

proportionality is 0.2kilogram/metre and the mass is 1 kilogram. What is the terminal velocity of
the particle assuming that the force due to air resistance remains proportional to the square of the
velocity?
(Physically speaking this last assumption is inappropriate since of course the body will have slowed
down to a slow speed).

8. In the old days you were allowed to take OB2 as many times as you want. Joe Bloggs is determined
to ace the course and thinks that he found the way to do it. From long experience, he has discovered
that each year he takes the course, the rate at which he learns new material is equal to half the
material he did not know. Unfortunately, the rate at which he forgets material is equal to one
quarter of the material he did know. Write down a differential equation that governs the fraction
of the material that he knows.

(a) In the long term what fraction of the material will he know?
(b) Set up and solve a differential equation governing the percentage of the total material that he
does know. Assume that he started off knowing a quarter of the material.
[There is a hint on the next page, but try to solve it without the hint.]

[Hint for Question 8: The main problem with this sort of question is working out how to set it up.
So, take M (t) to be the percentage of the material that he does know. Then the rate at which he
learns new material is 21 (1 M ) so (if we ignore the material he forgets) the differential equation
would be

dM
dt

= 12 (1 M ). Now add in the rate at which he forgets material...]