Internal
problem
ID
[19710] Book
:
Elementary
Differential
Equations.
By
Thornton
C.
Fry.
D
Van
Nostrand.
NY.
First
Edition
(1929) Section
:
Chapter
1.
section
5.
Problems
at
page
19 Problem
number
:
18 Date
solved
:
Friday, November 28, 2025 at 06:29:23 PM CAS
classification
:
[_linear]
We assume there exists a function \(\phi \left ( x,y\right ) =c\) where \(c\) is constant,
that satisfies the ode. Taking derivative of \(\phi \) w.r.t. \(x\) gives
But since \(\frac {\partial ^{2}\phi }{\partial x\partial y}=\frac {\partial ^{2}\phi }{\partial y\partial x}\) then for the above to be valid, we require that
If the above condition is satisfied, then
the original ode is called exact. We still need to determine \(\phi \left ( x,y\right ) \) but at least we know now that we can
do that since the condition \(\frac {\partial ^{2}\phi }{\partial x\partial y}=\frac {\partial ^{2}\phi }{\partial y\partial x}\) is satisfied. If this condition is not satisfied then this method will not
work and we have to now look for an integrating factor to force this condition, which might or
might not exist. The first step is to write the ODE in standard form to check for exactness, which
is
Since \(\frac {\partial M}{\partial v} \neq \frac {\partial N}{\partial u}\), then the ODE is not exact. Since the ODE is not exact, we will try to find an integrating
factor to make it exact. Let
\(M\) and \(N\) are multiplied by this integrating factor, giving new \(M\) and new \(N\) which are called \(\overline {M}\) and \(\overline {N}\) for now
so not to confuse them with the original \(M\) and \(N\).
\begin{align*} \overline {M} &=\mu M \\ &= u^{2}\left (\frac {2 v}{u}-3\right ) \\ &= -3 u^{2}+2 u v \end{align*}
Where \(f(u)\) is used for the constant of integration since \(\phi \) is a function of
both \(u\) and \(v\). Taking derivative of equation (3) w.r.t \(u\) gives
Where \(c_1\) is
constant of integration. Substituting result found above for \(f(u)\) into equation (3) gives \(\phi \)
\[
\phi = -u^{3}+u^{2} v+ c_1
\]
But since \(\phi \)
itself is a constant function, then let \(\phi =c_2\) where \(c_2\) is new constant and combining \(c_1\) and \(c_2\) constants into
the constant \(c_1\) gives the solution as
\[
-\frac {\ln \left (-u \left (u \right )+1\right )}{3}=\ln \left (u \right )+c_1
\]
Taking the exponential of both sides the solution becomes
\[
\frac {1}{\left (-u \left (u \right )+1\right )^{{1}/{3}}} = c_1 u
\]
We now need to find
the singular solutions, these are found by finding for what values \(g(u)\) is zero, since we had to divide by
this above. Solving \(g(u)=0\) or
\[
-3 u +3=0
\]
for \(u \left (u \right )\) gives
\begin{align*} u \left (u \right )&=1 \end{align*}
Now we go over each such singular solution and check if it verifies the ode itself and any initial
conditions given. If it does not then the singular solution will not be used.
Therefore the solutions found are
\begin{align*}
\frac {1}{\left (-u \left (u \right )+1\right )^{{1}/{3}}} &= c_1 u \\
u \left (u \right ) &= 1 \\
\end{align*}
Converting \(\frac {1}{\left (-u \left (u \right )+1\right )^{{1}/{3}}} = c_1 u\) back to \(v\) gives
\begin{align*} \frac {1}{\left (-\frac {v}{u}+1\right )^{{1}/{3}}} = c_1 u \end{align*}
Converting \(u \left (u \right ) = 1\) back to \(v\) gives
An ode of the form \(v' = \frac {M(u,v)}{N(u,v)}\) is called homogeneous if the functions \(M(u,v)\) and \(N(u,v)\) are both homogeneous functions
and of the same order. Recall that a function \(f(u,v)\) is homogeneous of order \(n\) if
\[ f(t^n u, t^n v)= t^n f(u,v) \]
In this case, it can be
seen that both \(M=-2 v +3 u\) and \(N=u\) are both homogeneous and of the same order \(n=1\). Therefore this is a
homogeneous ode. Since this ode is homogeneous, it is converted to separable ODE using the
substitution \(u=\frac {v}{u}\), or \(v=uu\). Hence
\[
-\frac {\ln \left (1-u \left (u \right )\right )}{3}=\ln \left (u \right )+c_1
\]
Taking the exponential of both sides the solution becomes
\[
\frac {1}{\left (1-u \left (u \right )\right )^{{1}/{3}}} = c_1 u
\]
We now need to find
the singular solutions, these are found by finding for what values \(g(u)\) is zero, since we had to divide by
this above. Solving \(g(u)=0\) or
\[
-3 u +3=0
\]
for \(u \left (u \right )\) gives
\begin{align*} u \left (u \right )&=1 \end{align*}
Now we go over each such singular solution and check if it verifies the ode itself and any initial
conditions given. If it does not then the singular solution will not be used.
Therefore the solutions found are
\begin{align*}
\frac {1}{\left (1-u \left (u \right )\right )^{{1}/{3}}} &= c_1 u \\
u \left (u \right ) &= 1 \\
\end{align*}
Converting \(\frac {1}{\left (1-u \left (u \right )\right )^{{1}/{3}}} = c_1 u\) back to \(v\) gives
\begin{align*} \frac {1}{\left (\frac {-v+u}{u}\right )^{{1}/{3}}} = c_1 u \end{align*}
Converting \(u \left (u \right ) = 1\) back to \(v\) gives
\begin{align*} v = u \end{align*}
Simplifying the above gives
\begin{align*}
\frac {1}{\left (-\frac {v-u}{u}\right )^{{1}/{3}}} &= c_1 u \\
v &= u \\
\end{align*}
Solving for \(v\) gives
\begin{align*}
v &= u \\
v &= \frac {c_1^{3} u^{3}-1}{c_1^{3} u^{2}} \\
\end{align*}
\[
-\frac {\ln \left (-u \left (u \right )+1\right )}{3}=\ln \left (u \right )+c_1
\]
Taking the exponential of both sides the solution becomes
\[
\frac {1}{\left (-u \left (u \right )+1\right )^{{1}/{3}}} = c_1 u
\]
We now need to find
the singular solutions, these are found by finding for what values \(g(u)\) is zero, since we had to divide by
this above. Solving \(g(u)=0\) or
\[
-3 u +3=0
\]
for \(u \left (u \right )\) gives
\begin{align*} u \left (u \right )&=1 \end{align*}
Now we go over each such singular solution and check if it verifies the ode itself and any initial
conditions given. If it does not then the singular solution will not be used.
Therefore the solutions found are
\begin{align*}
\frac {1}{\left (-u \left (u \right )+1\right )^{{1}/{3}}} &= c_1 u \\
u \left (u \right ) &= 1 \\
\end{align*}
Converting \(\frac {1}{\left (-u \left (u \right )+1\right )^{{1}/{3}}} = c_1 u\) back to \(v\) gives
\begin{align*} \frac {1}{\left (-\frac {v}{u}+1\right )^{{1}/{3}}} = c_1 u \end{align*}
Converting \(u \left (u \right ) = 1\) back to \(v\) gives
\begin{align*} v = u \end{align*}
Simplifying the above gives
\begin{align*}
\frac {1}{\left (-\frac {v-u}{u}\right )^{{1}/{3}}} &= c_1 u \\
v &= u \\
\end{align*}
Solving for \(v\) gives
\begin{align*}
v &= u \\
v &= \frac {c_1^{3} u^{3}-1}{c_1^{3} u^{2}} \\
\end{align*}
An ode of the form \(Y' = \frac {M(X,Y)}{N(X,Y)}\) is called homogeneous if the functions \(M(X,Y)\) and \(N(X,Y)\) are both homogeneous functions
and of the same order. Recall that a function \(f(X,Y)\) is homogeneous of order \(n\) if
\[ f(t^n X, t^n Y)= t^n f(X,Y) \]
In this case, it can be
seen that both \(M=3 X -2 Y\) and \(N=X\) are both homogeneous and of the same order \(n=1\). Therefore this is a
homogeneous ode. Since this ode is homogeneous, it is converted to separable ODE using the
substitution \(u=\frac {Y}{X}\), or \(Y=uX\). Hence
We now need to find
the singular solutions, these are found by finding for what values \(g(u)\) is zero, since we had to divide by
this above. Solving \(g(u)=0\) or
\[
-3 u +3=0
\]
for \(u \left (X \right )\) gives
\begin{align*} u \left (X \right )&=1 \end{align*}
Now we go over each such singular solution and check if it verifies the ode itself and any initial
conditions given. If it does not then the singular solution will not be used.
The next step is to determine the canonical coordinates \(R,S\). The canonical coordinates map \(\left ( u,v\right ) \to \left ( R,S \right )\) where \(\left ( R,S \right )\)
are the canonical coordinates which make the original ode become a quadrature and hence solved
by integration.
The characteristic pde which is used to find the canonical coordinates is
The above comes from the requirements that \(\left ( \xi \frac {\partial }{\partial u} + \eta \frac {\partial }{\partial v}\right ) S(u,v) = 1\). Starting with the first pair of ode’s in (1) gives an
ode to solve for the independent variable \(R\) in the canonical coordinates, where \(S(R)\). Since \(\xi =0\) then in this
special case
\begin{align*} R = u \end{align*}
\(S\) is found from
\begin{align*} S &= \int { \frac {1}{\eta }} dy\\ &= \int { \frac {1}{-2 u +2 v}} dy \end{align*}
Which results in
\begin{align*} S&= \frac {\ln \left (v -u \right )}{2} \end{align*}
Now that \(R,S\) are found, we need to setup the ode in these coordinates. This is done by evaluating
We now need to express the RHS as function of \(R\) only. This is done by solving for \(u,v\) in terms of \(R,S\) from
the result obtained earlier and simplifying. This gives
The above is a quadrature ode. This is the whole point of Lie symmetry method. It converts an
ode, no matter how complicated it is, to one that can be solved by integration when the ode is in
the canonical coordiates \(R,S\).
Since the ode has the form \(\frac {d}{d R}S \left (R \right )=f(R)\), then we only need to integrate \(f(R)\).