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In mathematics, an ordinary differential equation (ODE) is a differential equation (DE) dependent on only a single independent variable.As with any other DE, its unknown(s) consists of one (or more) function(s) and involves the derivatives of those functions. [1]
In mathematics, Abel's identity (also called Abel's formula [1] or Abel's differential equation identity) is an equation that expresses the Wronskian of two solutions of a homogeneous second-order linear ordinary differential equation in terms of a coefficient of the original differential equation.
The order of the differential equation is the highest order of derivative of the unknown function that appears in the differential equation. For example, an equation containing only first-order derivatives is a first-order differential equation, an equation containing the second-order derivative is a second-order differential equation, and so on.
Since Mathieu's equation is a second order differential equation, one can construct two linearly independent solutions. Floquet's theory says that if a {\displaystyle a} is equal to a characteristic number, one of these solutions can be taken to be periodic, and the other nonperiodic.
In the calculus of variations and classical mechanics, the Euler–Lagrange equations [1] are a system of second-order ordinary differential equations whose solutions are stationary points of the given action functional. The equations were discovered in the 1750s by Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler and Italian mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange.
The second derivative of a function f can be used to determine the concavity of the graph of f. [2] A function whose second derivative is positive is said to be concave up (also referred to as convex), meaning that the tangent line near the point where it touches the function will lie below the graph of the function.
Reduction of order (or d’Alembert reduction) is a technique in mathematics for solving second-order linear ordinary differential equations. It is employed when one solution y 1 ( x ) {\displaystyle y_{1}(x)} is known and a second linearly independent solution y 2 ( x ) {\displaystyle y_{2}(x)} is desired.
A second order Fuchsian equation with n singular points has a group of symmetries acting (projectively) on its solutions, isomorphic to the Coxeter group W(D n) of order 2 n−1 n!. The hypergeometric equation is the case n = 3, with group of order 24 isomorphic to the symmetric group on 4 points, as first described by Kummer.