5/27/2017 DifferentialEquationsFundamentalSetsofSolutions

FundamentalSetsofSolutions
Thetimehasfinallycometodefineniceenough.Wevebeenusingthistermthroughoutthelastfew
sectionstodescribethosesolutionsthatcouldbeusedtoformageneralsolutionanditisnowtimeto
officiallydefineit.

First,becauseeverythingthatweregoingtobedoinghereonlyrequireslinearandhomogeneouswewont
requireconstantcoefficientsinourdifferentialequation.So,letsstartwiththefollowingIVP.

(1)

Letsalsosupposethatwehavealreadyfoundtwosolutionstothisdifferentialequation,y1(t)andy2(t).We
knowfromthePrincipleofSuperpositionthat
(2)

willalsobeasolutiontothedifferentialequation.Whatwewanttoknowiswhetherornotitwillbea
generalsolution.Inorderfor(2)tobeconsideredageneralsolutionitmustsatisfythegeneralinitial
conditionsin(1).


Thiswillalsoimplythatanysolutiontothedifferentialequationcanbewritteninthisform.

So,letsseeifwecanfindconstantsthatwillsatisfytheseconditions.Firstdifferentiate(2)andpluginthe
initialconditions.

http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/DE/FundamentalSetsofSolutions.aspx 1/1