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In mathematics, a linear differential equation is a differential equation that is defined by a linear polynomial in the unknown function and its derivatives, that is an equation of the form + ′ + ″ + () = where a 0 (x), ..., a n (x) and b(x) are arbitrary differentiable functions that do not need to be linear, and y′, ..., y (n) are the successive derivatives of an unknown function y of ...
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.
Differential equations play a prominent role in many scientific areas: mathematics, physics, engineering, chemistry, biology, medicine, economics, etc. This list presents differential equations that have received specific names, area by area.
In the mathematical study of partial differential equations, Lewy's example is a celebrated example, due to Hans Lewy, of a linear partial differential equation with no solutions. It shows that the analog of the Cauchy–Kovalevskaya theorem does not hold in the smooth category.
A linear differential equation that fails this condition is called inhomogeneous. A linear differential equation can be represented as a linear operator acting on y(x) where x is usually the independent variable and y is the dependent variable. Therefore, the general form of a linear homogeneous differential equation is =
Among ordinary differential equations, linear differential equations play a prominent role for several reasons. Most elementary and special functions that are encountered in physics and applied mathematics are solutions of linear differential equations (see Holonomic function). When physical phenomena are modeled with non-linear equations, they ...
In mathematics, delay differential equations (DDEs) are a type of differential equation in which the derivative of the unknown function at a certain time is given in terms of the values of the function at previous times.
In calculus, the derivative of any linear combination of functions equals the same linear combination of the derivatives of the functions; [1] this property is known as linearity of differentiation, the rule of linearity, [2] or the superposition rule for differentiation. [3]