Differential Equations

Catalog description

This course is about analytic, graphical, and numerical techniques for solving ordinary differential equations and systems or ordinary differential equations. Students will also study "real world" phenomena using ordinary differential equations. Topics typically include separation of variables; slope fields; linear first-order equations and the method of integrating factors; Euler's method for both first- and second-order autonomous equations; phase lines; methods for solving second-order linear equations with constant coefficients having exponential, polynomial, or sinusoidal forcing functions, including the method of undetermined coefficients, the method of integrating factors, and the method of finding series solutions; spring-mass systems; linear systems of equations of the form x' = Ax; the trace-determinant plane; Laplace transforms; and existence and uniqueness theorems for various families of equations. Prerequisite: MAT 240. Offered Fall and Spring semesters.