MIT differential equation---3

what's linear form ?

P(x)y' + b(x)y = c(x)

in analogy to py + bx = c. (Does the standard linear form have some special properties? Yes, so you can use the integrating factor to solve)

given the standard form:

y' + p(x) y = q(x)

some other forms may be suggested but this is the form that will be used in this course.

different models

Temp-conc. model: dT/dt = K(Te - T)

Rather than simply modelling temperature changes, this model can be generalized to model other physical phenomenon, say, diffusion. (Beauty of math.) 

Well, the professor finally decides to solve an equation...So far, he's trying to let you intuitively think of differential equations I think, unlike simply throwing you some

mathematical solving routines.

Here's a general way of solving std linear form:

introducing an integrating factor u(x). Because it's a factor, it's very intuitive that we can multiply each term by this factor.

u y' + u p y = u q. We choose u(x) cleverly such that (u y)' = uq. Then by integrating, we can get our solution!

See how reasonable this hypothesis is. (u y)' = u y' + u' y(This is why you want to use this method and sometimes you can directly figure out the pattern). So we immediately get the first term and we just need to find a u(x)' = u(x) p(x).

(Every time you learn a method, you have to understand what the method is trying to get. This holds true for algorithm right, I suppose?)

Following is the procedure:

1. put in std linear form.

2. cal u(x)

3. multiply each sides by u(x)

4. integrate

FInally, we can solve the temperature conc. formula. The solution is fairly complicated to type but we can notice that given by k > 0, as time goes to infinity, the C term disappear so this term is called trangent while another is called steady state solution.

记录下感想，从小到大数学成绩就是不上不下，总觉的没有把握住学习数学的门道，学习的兴趣也就一般般吧。但是听了这3节课，对我自己确实非常有启发，我会继续学下去。

首先是对于数学中一种解决问题方法的学习，务必要看清方法的核心本质，不能生搬硬套。

其次是对于一个陌生或者不熟悉的问题，从形式上感受一下可能比直接学理论效果更好。

最近又在感慨自己入门晚，现在也是完全靠自学研究cs，看到比自己年轻的已经cs大牛了内心总会有点触动。

不过想到那句“种树最好的时候是十年前或者今天”， 还是很鼓舞哒～

我还有两年的时间，好好把握。