First Order, Second Degree ODE

ong_jun_jie
Messages
1
Reaction score
0

Homework Statement



Solve y^2*(1-(dy/dx)^2)=1

Homework Equations





The Attempt at a Solution



I expressed the ODE in terms of dy/dx and considered two cases. I got

(a) y^2 = 1 + (x+C)^2
(b) y^2 = 1 + (-x+C)^2 where C is a constant

However, my professor told me that there is another way to do this. He hinted me that this was some well-known ODE. Can someone enlighten me on where to find out more about this ODE? Thank you.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
That looks suspiciously like something trigonometric. Perhaps you could do a change of variables y=sin(z) or something similar.
 
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