Elementary Differential Equations, Section 02,

Prof. Loftin, Test 2

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

SOLUTION
1. (30 pts) Compute the general solution to each of the following equations. Show your
work.

(a) y 00 + 2y 0 + y = 0.
Solution: If y = ert , the characteristic equation is r2 + 2r + 1 = 0. This factors
to (r + 1)2 = 0, and so −1 is a double root. So the general solution is

c1 e−t + c2 te−t .

(b) y 00 + 2y 0 + 2y = 0.
Solution: For y = ert , we have r2 + 2r + 2 = 0, with solutions
p
−2 ± 22 − 4(1)(2)
r= = −1 ± i,
2
and so the general solution is

c1 e−t cos t + c2 e−t sin t.

(c) x2 y 00 − 6xy 0 + 12y = 0 (for x > 0).

Solution: For y = xr , we have the indicial equation

0 = r(r − 1) − 6r + 12 = r2 − 7r + 12 = (r − 3)(r − 4).

So the roots are r = 3, 4, and the general solution (for x > 0) is

c1 x3 + c2 x4 .

2. (10 pts) Find the first five terms of the power series solution (up to the a4 x4 term)
around x = 0 to the initial value problem

y 00 + (2 + x)y 0 − y = x2 + 5, y(0) = 1, y 0 (0) = 3.

Show your work.

Solution: Compute for

y = a0 + a1 x + a2 x 2 + a3 x 3 + a4 x 4 + · · ·
y 0 = a1 + 2a2 x + 3a3 x2 + 4a4 x3 + · · ·
y 00 = 2a2 + 6a3 x + 12a4 x2 + · · ·

1
 It helps to rewrite our equation as y 00 + 2y 0 + xy 0 − y = x2 + 5, which becomes

2a2 + 6a3 x + 12a4 x2 + ···

+ 2a1 + 4a2 x + 6a3 x2 + ···
+ a1 x + 2a2 x2 + ···
− a0 − a1 x − a2 x 2 − ···
= 5 + x2

The initial conditions imply a0 = y(0) = 1 and a1 = y 0 (0) = 3. Then the constant
terms imply

2a2 + 2a1 − a0 = 5, 2a2 + 2(3) − 1 = 5, a2 = 0.

The x terms imply

6a3 + 4a2 + a1 − a1 = 0, 6a3 + 4(0) = 0, a3 = 0.

The x2 terms imply

1
12a4 + 6a3 + 2a2 − a2 = 1, 12a4 + 6(0) + 0 = 1, a4 = .
12
Thus the solution
1 4
y ∼ 1 + 3x + x.
12
3. (10 pts) Find the recurrence relation for the coefficients of power series solution around
x = 0 to differential equation
y 00 + x2 y = 0.
Show your work.
Solution: Compute

y = a0 + a1 x + a2 x 2 + · · · an x n + · · ·
y 00 = 2a2 + · · · + n(n − 1)an xn−2 + · · ·
= 2a2 + · · · + (n + 2)(n + 1)an+2 xn + · · ·
x2 y = a0 x2 + · · · + an xn+2 + · · ·
= a0 x2 + · · · + an−2 xn + · · ·

So, comparing xn terms, y 00 + x2 y = 0 implies (n + 2)(n + 1)an+2 + an−2 = 0, and so

the recurrence relation is
an−2
an+2 = − .
(n + 2)(n + 1)

4. (10 pts)

(a) Use the method of undetermined coefficients to find a solution to

y 000 − 4y 0 = et .

2
 Show your work.
Solution: Let the solution Y = Aet , and compute Y 0 = Aet , Y 00 = Aet , Y 000 =
Aet . Plug in to find
1
Aet − 4Aet = et , −3A = 1, A=− ,
3
and the solution is Y = − 31 et .
(b) Find the general solution to
y 000 − 4y 0 = et .
Show your work.
Solution: The general solution to this nonhomogeneous equation is the particular
solution from part (a) plus the general solution to the homogeneous equation
y 000 − 4y 0 = 0. For this, let y = ert , and find the characteristic equation

0 = r3 − 4r = r(r − 2)r + 2, r = 0, 2, −2.

So the general solution to the homogeneous equation is

c1 + c2 e2t + c3 e−2t ,

and the general solution to our problem is

1
− et + c1 + c2 e2t + c3 e−2t .
3

5. (5 pts) Use Abel’s Theorem to determine the Wronskian of two solutions to the equation

xy 00 + x2 y 0 + y = 0.

Solution: Put the equation in the standard format

y 00 + xy 0 + x−1 y = 0.

for p(x) = x. Abel’s Theorem then states that the Wronskian for any two solutions is
equal to  Z   Z 
1 2
c exp − p dx = c exp − x dx = c e− 2 x

for a constant c.