Example 2: Find a power series expansion for the solution of the IVP

Substituting

into the differential equation yields

or, collecting all the terms on one side,

Writing out the first few terms of the series yields

or, upon combining like terms,

Now that the pattern is clear, this last equation can be written

In order for this equation to hold true for all x, every coefficient on the left‐hand side must
be zero. This means

The last equation defines the recurrence relation that determines the coefficients of the
power series solution:
The first equation in (*) says c 1 = c 0, and the second equation says c 2 = ½(1 + c 1) = ½(1
+ c 0). Next, the recurrence relation says

and so on. Collecting all these results, the desired power series solution is therefore

Now, the initial condition is applied to evaluate the parameter c 0:

Therefore, the power series expansion for the solution of the given IVP is

If desired, it is possible to express this in terms of elementary functions. Since

equation (**) may be written

which does indeed satisfy the given IVP, as you can readily verify.

Second‐order equations. The process of finding power series solutions of homogeneous

second‐order linear differential equations is more subtle than for first‐order equations. Any
homogeneous second‐order linear differential equation may be written in the
form

If both coefficient functions p and q are analytic at x 0, then x 0 is called an ordinary point of
the differential equation. On the other hand, if even one of these functions fails to be
analytic at x 0, then x 0 is called a singular point. Since the method for finding a solution that
is a power series in x 0 is considerably more complicated if x 0 is a singular point, attention
here will be restricted to power series solutions at ordinary points.