Higher-Order Differential Equations - Differential Equations

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Question

Solve the initial value problem for and .

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Answer

This is a linear higher order differential equation. First, we need the characteristic equation, which is just obtained by turning the derivative orders into powers to get the following:

We then solve the characteristic equation and find that This lets us know that the basis for the fundamental set of solutions to this problem (solutions to the homogeneous problem) contains .

As the given problem was homogeneous, the solution is just a linear combination of these functions. Thus, . Plugging in our initial condition, we find that . To plug in the second initial condition, we take the derivative and find that . Plugging in the second initial condition yields . Solving this simple system of linear equations shows us that

Leaving us with a final answer of

(Note, it would have been very simple to find the right answer just by taking derivatives and plugging in, but this is not overly helpful for non-multiple choice questions)

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