Science:Math Exam Resources/Courses/MATH215/December 2011/Question 01 (b)

MATH215 December 2011

  •  Q1 (a)  •  Q1 (b)  •  Q2 (a)  •  Q2 (b)  •  Q3 (a)  •  Q3 (b)  •  Q3 (c)  •  Q4 (a)  •  Q4 (b)  •  Q4 (c)  •  Q5 (a)  •  Q5 (b)  •  Q5 (c)  •  Q6 (a)  •  Q6 (b)  •  Q6 (c)  •  Q7 (a)  •  Q7 (b)  •  Q7 (c)  •  Q7 (d)  •  

   Other MATH215 Exams

  •  April 2013  •  December 2011  •  December 2013  •  

Question 01 (b)
Solve the following nonlinear ODE: $t^{2}w'+2tw-w^{3}=0,\quad t>0.$

Make sure you understand the problem fully: What is the question asking you to do? Are there specific conditions or constraints that you should take note of? How will you know if your answer is correct from your work only? Can you rephrase the question in your own words in a way that makes sense to you?

If you are stuck, check the hints below. Read the first one and consider it for a while. Does it give you a new idea on how to approach the problem? If so, try it! If after a while you are still stuck, go for the next hint.

Hint 1
The substitution $\displaystyle w=v^{-1/2}$ will simplify matters.

Hint 2
After the substitution you will recover a differential equation that you are familiar with.

Checking a solution serves two purposes: helping you if, after having used all the hints, you still are stuck on the problem; or if you have solved the problem and would like to check your work. If you are stuck on a problem: Read the solution slowly and as soon as you feel you could finish the problem on your own, hide it and work on the problem. Come back later to the solution if you are stuck or if you want to check your work. If you want to check your work: Don't only focus on the answer, problems are mostly marked for the work you do, make sure you understand all the steps that were required to complete the problem and see if you made mistakes or forgot some aspects. Your goal is to check that your mental process was correct, not only the result.

Solution

Found a typo? Is this solution unclear? Let us know here. Please rate my easiness! It's quick and helps everyone guide their studies. As the exam hint suggests, we make the substitution $w=v^{-1/2}$ so that $w'=-{\frac {1}{2}}v^{-3/2}v'$. Under this substitution, $t^{2}w'+2tw-w^{3}=0$ becomes ${\begin{aligned}t^{2}(-{\frac {1}{2}}v^{-3/2}v')+2tv^{-1/2}-v^{-3/2}&=0\\v'-{\frac {4}{t}}v+{\frac {2}{t^{2}}}&=0\end{aligned}}$ where we multiplied the equation by $-2{\frac {v^{3/2}}{t^{2}}}.$ This is now the same ODE as in part (a), so the solution is that $v={\frac {2}{5t}}+Ct^{4}$. Hence we have $w=\left({\frac {2}{5t}}+Ct^{4}\right)^{-1/2}$.

Click here for similar questions

MER QGH flag, MER QGQ flag, MER QGS flag, MER RT flag, MER Tag Higher-order differential equation, Pages using DynamicPageList3 parser function, Pages using DynamicPageList3 parser tag