How Does the Substitution x=es, y=et Transform the PDE for f(x,y)?

  • Thread starter Thread starter CrimsnDragn
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Partial
CrimsnDragn
Messages
4
Reaction score
0

Homework Statement


the substitution x=es, y=et converts f(x,y) into g(s,t) where g(s,t)=f(es, et). If f is known to satisfy the partial differential equation

x2(d2f/dx2) + y2(d2f/dy2) + x(df/dx) + y(df/dy) = 0

show that g satisfies the partial-differential equation

(d2g/ds2) + (d2g/dt2) = 0

The Attempt at a Solution



I feel like this is a simple problem - All I need to figure out is how to find the partial derivative of f(x,y) and the double partial derivative, but I'm not sure how to do it. Are the values of x and y relevant for the first part of the question?

what would df/dx be? D1f(x,y) = (y)f'(x,y) by the chain rule? and similarly df/dy = D2f(x,y) = (x)f'(x,y)? Someone please help!
 
Physics news on Phys.org
i assume they're meant to be partials... & I don't really understand what you've written at the end of the post but here's some ideas I hope help

now as you're given
x(s)=e^s
y(t)=e^t

invert these and then re-write as
s(x)=ln(s)
t(y)=ln(y)

so the relation function g & f is given as
g(s,t) = f(x(s), y(t))

we can re-write it and think of it as
f(x,y) = g(s(x), t(y))

now try taking a partial w.r.t x and using the chain rule on the RHS

\frac{\partial f(x,y)}{\pratial x} = \frac{\partial }{\partial x} g(s(x), t(y))
the partial w.r.t. x means the other variable (y) in this case is kept constant
 
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