MATHEMATICS-III

Lecture-2

P. DANUMJAYA
Department of Mathematics

BITS-Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus

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Separable Equations

A differential equation which can be written in the form

M(x) dx + N(y ) dy = 0,

where M is a function of x alone and N is a function of y alone,

is said to be separable.
The solution is
Z Z
M(x) dx + N(y) dy = C,

where C is an arbitrary constant.

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Example 1

Find the solution of the equation

dy
y′ = = ex+y .
dx

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Solution
We write
dy
= ex ey .
dx
Now separating the variables, we obtain

e−y (dy /dx) = ex .

Integrating with respect to x and then replacing (dy /dx) dx by

dy yields Z Z
−y
e dy = ex dx.

Thus, we get the general solution

−e−y = ex + C,

where C is any arbitrary constant.

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Example 2

Solve
dy
= ex y 3 − xex y 3 ,
dx
y(0) = −1.

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Solution

The equation is separable and the solution is

1
− y −2 = (2 − x)ex + C.
2
Substituting the initial condition, we get C = − 25 .

Therefore, the solution of the given problem is

1
y2 = .
5 − 2(2 − x)ex

This gives
1
y = −p .
5 − 2(2 − x)ex

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Example 3

We consider the differential equation

dy 1
= .
dt 1 + ey

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Solution

This equation can be written in separable form as

dy
(1 + ey ) = 1.
dt
The general solution for the given differential equation is

y + ey = t + C,

where C is an arbitrary constant.

Note that, we have obtained implicit solution for a given

differential equation.

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Homogeneous Equations
An equation of the form

dy
= f (x, y ) (1)
dx
is said to be homogeneous whenever the function f does not
depend on x and y separately, but only on their ratio yx or yx .

Thus, homogeneous equations are of the form

dy y 
=f .
dx x
The function f (x, y) is called homogeneous of degree n if

f (tx, ty) = t n f (x, y).

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Homogeneous Equations (contd...)

The differential equation (1) is called a homogeneous equation

if f is homogeneous of degree 0, i.e., if

f (λx, λy ) = f (x, y ), ∀ λ ∈ R.

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Homogeneous Equations (contd...)

A differential equation

M(x, y) dx + N(x, y ) dy = 0, (2)

is called homogeneous if M(x, y) and N(x, y) are

homogeneous functions of the same degree.

Writing the equation (2) in the form

dy M(x, y ) y 
=− =F .
dx N(x, y ) x

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We simplify the homogeneous equation by introducing a new
dependent variable v as a function of x to represent ratio of y
to x. Thus

y = xv . (3)

The given differential equation becomes

dy
= F (v ).
dx
Differentiating (3) with respect to x, we obtain

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 dy dv
=v +x .
dx dx
dy
Using dx = F (v ), we rewrite the above equation as

dv F (v ) − v
= .
dx x
(or)
1 dv 1
= .
(F (v ) − v ) dx x

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Integrating on both sides with respect to x and replacing
(dv /dx) dx by dv , we get the solution for v .

y
Finally, we replace v by x to get the required solution y.

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Example 5

Find the general solution of

dy
x2 = y 2 + xy + x 2 .
dx

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Solution

We note that the given differential equation is homogeneous

differential equation.

We now substitute y = vx and simplifying, we arrive

1 dv 1
= .
v2 + 1 dx x

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Integrating on both sides, we obtain

tan−1 (v ) = ln |x| + C,

where C is any arbitrary constant.

We replace v = yx to get the required solution for the given

differential equation
y 
tan−1 = ln |x| + C,
x
where C is any arbitrary constant.

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Reduction to Separable Form

We consider the differential equation of the form

 
dy a1 x + b1 y + c1
=f .
dx a2 x + b2 y + c2

We bring the above equation homogeneous by change of

variables.

We put

x = x1 + h,
y = y1 + k .

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Substituting x and y in the given differential equation and we
choose h and k so that

a1 h + b1 k + c1 = 0,
a2 h + b2 k + c2 = 0, (4)

we obtain  
dy1 a1 x1 + b1 y1
=f ,
dx1 a2 x1 + b2 y1
which is homogeneous.

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The equation (4) can be solved for h and k provided

D = a1 b2 − a2 b1 ̸= 0.

We note that by translating the origin to the point (h, k) we have

removed the constant terms in the linear expressions.

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If D = 0, the first degree terms of numerator and denominator
are proportional and the equation falls into the form

dy
= f (ax + by + c).
dx
We put z = ax + by + c then

dz
= a + bf (z).
dx
We can solve the above equation by using variable seperable
method.

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Example 6

Find the general solution of

(x + y + 1) dx + (2x + 2y − 1) dy = 0.

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Solution

Here D = a1 b2 − a2 b1 = 0. We put

z =x +y

so that
dz dy
=1+ .
dx dx

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Thus
dz z +1
=1−
dx 2z − 1
(or)
dz z −2
= .
dx 2z − 1
Solving, we get

2z + 3 ln |z − 2| = x + C,

where C is any arbitrary constant.

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Substituting z = x + y, we obtain

2(x + y) + 3 ln |x + y − 2| = x + C,

where C is any arbitrary constant.

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Practice Problems
Find a solution of the initial value problem (IVP)

y ′ + 2xy = x,
5
y(0) = .
2
Solve the following differential equations
 y  dy y 
x cos = y cos + x.
x dx x

x x
 
2ye y dx + y − 2xe y dy = 0,
y(0) = 1.
dy y 
x − y + x sin = 0.
dx x
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