Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Ordinary differential equation
Summary
In mathematics, an ordinary differential equation (ODE) is a differential equation (DE) dependent on only a single independent variable. As with other DE, its unknown(s) consists of one (or more) function(s) and involves the derivatives of those functions. The term "ordinary" is used in contrast with partial differential equations which may be with respect to one independent variable.
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', \ldots, y^{(n)} are the successive derivatives of the unknown function y of the variable x.
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 are generally approximated by linear differential equations for an easier solution. The few non-linear ODEs that can be solved explicitly are generally solved by transforming the equation into an equivalent linear ODE (see, for example Riccati equation).
Some ODEs can be solved explicitly in terms of known functions and integrals. When that is not possible, the equation for computing the Taylor series of the solutions may be useful. For applied problems, numerical methods for ordinary differential equations can supply an approximation of the solution.
Ordinary differential equations (ODEs) arise in many contexts of mathematics and social and natural sciences. Mathematical descriptions of change use differentials and derivatives. Various differentials, derivatives, and functions become related via equations, such that a differential equation is a result that describes dynamically changing phenomena, evolution, and variation.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Ontological neighbourhood
Related courses (41)
COM-300: Stochastic models in communication
L'objectif de ce cours est la maitrise des outils des processus stochastiques utiles pour un ingénieur travaillant dans les domaines des systèmes de communication, de la science des données et de l'i
MATH-106(a): Analysis II
Étudier les concepts fondamentaux d'analyse, et le calcul différentiel et intégral des fonctions réelles de plusieurs
variables.
MATH-207(a): Analysis IV (for SV, MT)
The course studies the fundamental concepts of complex analysis with a view to their use in solving multidisciplinary problems of scientific engineering.
Related people (83)
Related units (7)
Related concepts (53)
Peano existence theorem
In mathematics, specifically in the study of ordinary differential equations, the Peano existence theorem, Peano theorem or Cauchy–Peano theorem, named after Giuseppe Peano and Augustin-Louis Cauchy, is a fundamental theorem which guarantees the existence of solutions to certain initial value problems. Peano first published the theorem in 1886 with an incorrect proof. In 1890 he published a new correct proof using successive approximations.
Variation of parameters
In mathematics, variation of parameters, also known as variation of constants, is a general method to solve inhomogeneous linear ordinary differential equations. For first-order inhomogeneous linear differential equations it is usually possible to find solutions via integrating factors or undetermined coefficients with considerably less effort, although those methods leverage heuristics that involve guessing and do not work for all inhomogeneous linear differential equations.
Stochastic partial differential equation
Stochastic partial differential equations (SPDEs) generalize partial differential equations via random force terms and coefficients, in the same way ordinary stochastic differential equations generalize ordinary differential equations. They have relevance to quantum field theory, statistical mechanics, and spatial modeling. One of the most studied SPDEs is the stochastic heat equation, which may formally be written as where is the Laplacian and denotes space-time white noise.