Fundamentals of calculus
Chapter 3: differential equations of
functions involving one independent variable.
“Everything big is built out
of smaller units; and if the smaller units fail to cooperate the bigger ones
ultimately fall”
“A good learner never
accepts the educative information he comes across unless he knows for sure,
that there is no practical and logical way to contradict it”
Calculus as a whole evolved
to support something new, a differential equation. One marvellous fact about
differential equations are they don’t have any constants to describe the
graphical structure they represent. In the previous article ‘chapter 2’, we saw how
differentiation eliminates a constant. This fact can be taken advantage of to
frame differential equations that elaborate the actual rate of change of
different quantities. For example if, $z = ax^2 + bx +c$ then $\frac{dz}{dx} =
2ax + b$ and $\frac{d^2z}{dx^2} = 2a$ and $\frac{d^3z}{dx^3} = 0$.
Seeing the above
expressions, the last one that has its value equated to zero best describes the
differential equation; it does not have any constants involved. So what does
this show? An example of a normal function would be $z = x^2 + 2x + 3$; this
represents a particular behaviour of the equation. Now a family of equations
would be $z = ax^2 + bx + c$. This does not have a specified shape and
orientation but expresses a family of such equations. Unless the constants are
specified, the rate of change of the equation, i.e., the differential, remains
ambiguous; or we may say, depends on the terms $a$ and $b$. The value $c$
specifies the orientation of the function in the graph w.r.t (with respect to)
the X- axis.
Let’s say that we have an
equation $z = x^2 + 2x +c$. It is again a second degree equation, but has only
one constant. We may eliminate that constant by writing $\frac {dz} {dx} = 2x +
2$. So now this serves as our differential equation. Now let’s write $z = ax^2
+ 2x + 3$, differentiating $z$ w.r.t $x$ twice we get, $\frac {d^2z}{dx^2} =
2a$ and we may write $a = \frac{d^2z}{2dx^2} = a$. Substituting this in our
original expression for $z$ we get, $z = \frac{d^2z}{2dx^2}x^2+2x + 3$ as our
differential equation. So let’s see what does this mean by words. It means, $z$
is a function of $x$ for which the rate of change of rate of change of $z$ w.r.t is unknown, but the rate of change and
the orientation of the function w.r.t the base axis is known.
The benefit of this kind of
mathematical expression will not seem clear unless we give a real example for
this. Let an object move along a single axis with varying velocity, depending
upon many unknown factors. But by observing it for long enough, let’s plot the
change in position w.r.t the time taken. Time is taken in the X axis and the
positional displacement w.r.t a specific point is denoted by the Z axis. So we
may write $z = f(t)$. Here $z$ being some function of $t$ shows the position of
the moving point at each point in time. If the mass of the object is $m$ then
the force it provides along the Z axis for each unit time can be represented by
the differential equation $F = m\frac {d^2z}{dt^2} $.
Let’s consider another differential
equation $z = \frac{1}{6} \times \frac {d^2z}{dx^2}x^2$. What could this
function be? Putting $z = ax^3$, we get $z = 6ax^3\times \frac{1}{6}$. Now let’s
get this more challenging. $z = x^n$ now try finding the differential equation
of this function, if $n$ is an unknown constant. Differentiating this for $n$
times w.r.t $x$ gives a differential equation. But this does not eliminate the
constant $n$ because, we would be writing $\frac{d^nz}{dx^n} = 0$ and this
still has the constant $n$.
Example 1:
Consider
the expression $z = x^n$ where $z$ is a function of $x$ with $n$ being the
unknown constant. Express this function as a differential equation.
Solution:
In the examples elaborated in the above explanation,
the unknown constant could be easily eliminated by differentiating and
obtaining different functions which can be used to eliminate the constant value.
Applying this here we get $\frac{dz}{dx} = nx^{n-1}$ which is $n\frac{z}{x} = \frac{dz}{dx}
$ and can be further written as, $z = x^{\frac{x}{z}\times \frac{dz}{dx}}$.
Alternate:
A simpler solution will be to take log
on both sides (note unless stated log to the base $e$ is taken).
$log z = n log x$
$\frac{dz}{dx}\times \frac{1}{z} =
\frac{n}{x}$
$log z = x\frac{dz}{dx}\frac{1}{z}log x$
We have obviously eliminated $n$. In
this case the solution involves logarithmic functions.
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