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Lecture Notes in Differential Equations - Bruce E. Shapiro

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34 LESSON 4. LINEAR EQUATIONS<br />

Figure 4.1: Different solutions for example 4.6.<br />

2<br />

1<br />

0<br />

1<br />

2<br />

2 1 0 1 2<br />

The three solutions are illustrated <strong>in</strong> the figure 4.1. In cases (a) and (b),<br />

the doma<strong>in</strong> of the solution that fits the <strong>in</strong>itial condition excludes t = 0; but<br />

<strong>in</strong> case (c), the solution is cont<strong>in</strong>uous for all t. Furthermore, lim t→0 y is<br />

radically different <strong>in</strong> all three cases. With a little thought we see that<br />

⎧<br />

⎪⎨ ∞, if y(1) > 2/3<br />

lim y(t) = 0, if y(1) = 2/3<br />

t→0 + ⎪ ⎩<br />

−∞, if y(1) < 2/3<br />

(4.80)<br />

As t → ∞ all of the solutions become asymptotic to the curve y = 2t 2 /3.<br />

The side on of the curved asymptote on which the <strong>in</strong>itial conditions falls<br />

determ<strong>in</strong>es the behavior of the solution for small t.<br />

What if we were given the <strong>in</strong>itial condition y(0) = 0 <strong>in</strong> the previous example?<br />

Clearly the solution y = 2t 2 /3 satisfies this condition, but if we try to<br />

plug the <strong>in</strong>itial condition <strong>in</strong>to the general solution<br />

y = 2t2<br />

3 + C t 4 (4.81)<br />

we have a problem because of the C/t 4 term. One possible approach is to<br />

multiply through by the offend<strong>in</strong>g t 4 factor:<br />

yt 4 = 2 3 t6 + C (4.82)

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