2nd order ODE solution bases /wronskain question

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Greger
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hello

this question from my coarse notes has been giving me some trouble so i thought i would ask for some help on here,

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/9764/asfar.jpg

i understand that since the bases are bases of the same solutions then they are just a multiple of each other, but I'm not sure how you would show it using the wronskain.

i first tried starting by saying since both are two different bases for the solutions then
[itex]k\phi_{1}=\psi_{1}[/itex]

[itex]k\phi_{2}=\psi_{2}[/itex]

then doing the wronskian, but it gives k2

it seems like there is something straight forward that i am not seeing

anyone know what it might be?
 
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Greger said:
hello

this question from my coarse notes has been giving me some trouble so i thought i would ask for some help on here,

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/9764/asfar.jpg

i understand that since the bases are bases of the same solutions then they are just a multiple of each other, but I'm not sure how you would show it using the wronskain.

No, they aren't just multiples of each other. For example, the equation ##y''-y=0## could have ##y=A\cosh(x)+B\sinh(x)## or ##y=Ce^x+De^{-x}##.
i first tried starting by saying since both are two different bases for the solutions then
[itex]k\phi_{1}=\psi_{1}[/itex]

[itex]k\phi_{2}=\psi_{2}[/itex]

then doing the wronskian, but it gives k2

it seems like there is something straight forward that i am not seeing

anyone know what it might be?

What you do know is that each function in the second basis is a linear combination of the functions in the first basis. Calciulate the Wronskian for the second basis and use that fact to relate it to the Wronskian in the first basis.
 
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Hey,

Thanks for your reply!

Sorry I had an assignment I had to work on before I started studying math again,

So I did what you said just now using

[itex]c_1\phi_{1} +c_2\phi_{2}=\psi_{1}[/itex]

[itex]c_3\phi_{1} +c_4\phi_{2}=\psi_{1}[/itex]

I got the required result with k = c1c4-c2c3

It seems good to me thanks!

Does it look right to you?