MATH1020U: Chapter 4 1

INTRODUCTION TO DIFFERENTIAL
EQUATIONS

Basics of Differential Equations (4.1; Book 2)

Recall: Throughout your mathematics education, you’ve learned how to solve various
types of equations. However, other types of equations are also possible. For example,
we may have equations while involve information about the rate of change of a quantity.

Definition: A differential equation is an equation that contains an unknown function

and one or more of its derivatives.

Definition: The order of a differential equation is the order of the highest derivative that
occurs in the equation.

Examples: State the order for each of the following differential equations:
______
______
______

Example: The rate of change of a population P (with respect to time t) is proportional to

the population itself.

Example: A cup of coffee at temperature T cools proportionately to the temperature

difference between it and its surroundings (Ts)
MATH1020U: Chapter 4 2

Example: The force exerted by a spring (and hence, it’s acceleration) is proportional to
it’s displacement from the rest position.

Source of Images: http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~vawter/PhysicsNet/Topics/SHM/HookesLaw.html

Example: The rate of spread of the flu in a community of total size N is proportional to
the number of infected (I) and susceptible (S) individuals.

Definition: A function f is called a solution of a differential equation if the equation is

satisfied when and its derivatives are substituted into the equation.

Example: Determine whether is a solution of .

Example: For what values of r is a solution of ?

Question: So, now that we know what it means to solve a differential equation, how do
we actually do this? Well, in some basic cases like , we can reason out the
solution. (It’s ). For more complex examples, we’ll learn a method next
class. Today, we’ll focus on numerical and graphical approaches.
Recall: We already know how to solve some basic differential equations in order to find
the family of solutions (general solution).
MATH1020U: Chapter 4 3

Recall: We have also had to sometimes solve problems involving an initial condition.
The problem of finding a solution of the differential equation that satisfies the initial
condition is called an initial-value problem (“IVP”)

Direction Fields and Numerical Methods (4.2; Book 2)

Recall: We’ve just shown that we already know how to solve some basic differential
equations, but how do we solve more complicated ones such as ?

While it may be difficult to solve a differential equation in general, it would be useful to

have an idea of what the solution looks like.

Definition: If we draw short line segments with slope at several points ,

the result is called a direction field (or slope field).

If we draw a function that satisfies the criteria below, then it is the solution to our
differential equation.
 Goes through the given point (i.e. satisfies the initial condition)
 MATH1020U: Chapter 4 4

 Stays parallel to the line segments/arrows

Question: Suppose we wanted to know if a given direction field matched a given

differential equation…what would we look for to make our decision?

Example: Match each of the following differential equations with the corresponding
direction field.
a) b) c) d)

1 2

3 4

Question: Since many differential equations are hard to solve, can we somehow use
numerical techniques to help us approximate the answer? Yes…we’ll learn the simplest
technique!
MATH1020U: Chapter 4 5

Definition: Euler’s Method gives us an approximation to the solution of a first-order

initial-value problem subject to with step size h, at
using the formula

where

Example: Find the approximate value of the solution to the initial value problem
, at using Euler’s method with

Step n xn yn

The final answer is _______________________

Exercise: Find the approximate value of the solution to the initial value problem
, at using Euler’s method with .
[Answer: ]