(Differential Equations) General and singular solutions

namegoeshere
Messages
5
Reaction score
0

Homework Statement


Find the general solution and any singular solutions to (2xy^3+4x)y'=x^2y^2+y^2.

Homework Equations


The Attempt at a Solution


2x(y^3+2)y'=y^2(x^2+1)
\int\frac{y^3+2}{y^2}\,dy=\int\frac{x^2+1}{2x}\,dx
\frac{y^3-4}{2y}=\frac{x^2+2\ln x}{4}+C

Is this correct?
To find the singular solution, do I set y'=0 and see if its solutions fit into the general solution? i.e.

y'=\frac{x^2y^2+y^2}{2x^3+4x}=0 \Rightarrow y=0​

Which in this example does not fit into the general solution since the left side becomes \frac{(0)^3-4}{2(0)}. Therefore y=0 is a singular solution?
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org
namegoeshere said:

Homework Statement


Find the general solution and any singular solutions to (2xy^3+4x)y'=x^2y^2+y^2.


Homework Equations





The Attempt at a Solution


2x(y^3+2)y'=y^2(x^2+1)
\int\frac{y^3+2}{y^2}\,dy=\int\frac{x^2+1}{2x}\,dx
\frac{y^3-4}{2y}=\frac{x^2+2\ln x}{4}+C

Is this correct?

That looks OK, at least for ##x>0##.

To find the singular solution, do I set y'=0 and see if its solutions fit into the general solution? i.e.

y'=\frac{x^2y^2+y^2}{2x^3+4x}=0 \Rightarrow y=0​

Which in this example does not fit into the general solution since the left side becomes \frac{(0)^3-4}{2(0)}. Therefore y=0 is a singular solution?

In your solution, you divided by ##y^2##. That rules out finding a potential solution of ##y=0##. So you plug that into the original equation and see if it works. You don't set ##y'=0## to do it.
 
LCKurtz said:
That looks OK, at least for ##x>0##.
In your solution, you divided by ##y^2##. That rules out finding a potential solution of ##y=0##. So you plug that into the original equation and see if it works. You don't set ##y'=0## to do it.

Ah, I get it now. Based my singular solution attempt off the one given example we had, and admittedly what I tried didn't make intuitive sense to me. Thanks. :)
 
There are two things I don't understand about this problem. First, when finding the nth root of a number, there should in theory be n solutions. However, the formula produces n+1 roots. Here is how. The first root is simply ##\left(r\right)^{\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)}##. Then you multiply this first root by n additional expressions given by the formula, as you go through k=0,1,...n-1. So you end up with n+1 roots, which cannot be correct. Let me illustrate what I mean. For this...
Back
Top