[SOLVED] (Methods)Parameters v Undetermined Coefficients

[hils0005]

Can anyone tell me why I would use one technique over the other? It seems as though undetermined Coef. is much easier to do but I suppose that comes with limitations???

[rock.freak667]

Can anyone tell me why I would use one technique over the other? It seems as though undetermined Coef. is much easier to do but I suppose that comes with limitations???

Well if you can guess the particular integral of a Diff eq'n then method of undetermined coefficients will work and the pi's you can usually guess are usually e^{ax},sinax,cosax,sinax+cosax,etc.. But if you have tanx or \frac{1}{1+x} then you'll need to use variation of parameters to solve.

[hils0005]

Thanks for the explanation