Matlab for differential equations

[Mathmanman]

Does MATLAB solve differential equations?

 

[SteamKing]

Depends on what you mean by 'solve'. Are you talking analytically or numerically?

 

[Mathmanman]

I mean like the general solution of a differential equation.
For example:
Solve xy'-4y = (x^6)(e^x)
General solution: y = x^5e^x – x^4e^x + cx^4

 

[SteamKing]

I mean like the general solution of a differential equation.
For example:
Solve xy'-4y = (x^6)(e^x)
General solution: y = x^5e^x – x^4e^x + cx^4

This is called the 'analytical' solution. The 'numerical' solution obviously uses just numbers.

I think Matlab is more geared to numerical computation that symbolic manipulation.

For the latter, a package like Mathematica or Maple would have that capability.

 

[Bill Simpson]

I believe Matlab includes a symbolic math toolbox. It has been a long time, but I think that might have once been provided by an included subset of Maple, but I think they then switched to MuPad. This page seems to show that Matlab can give analytic solutions to differential equations via the toolbox and dsolve.

http://www.mathworks.com/help/symbolic/functionlist.html

I don't have access to that so I can't verify that it can solve your example.