Neumann vs Dirichlet Boundary Conditions

[mherna48]

Hi everyone,

What's the difference between these two boundary conditions? Why are they important to know?

 

[Irrational]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirichlet_boundary_condition"

"When imposed on an ordinary or a partial differential equation, it specifies the values a solution needs to take on the boundary of the domain"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neumann_boundary_condition"

"When imposed on an ordinary or a partial differential equation, it specifies the values that the derivative of a solution is to take on the boundary of the domain."

 

[n!kofeyn]

This http://books.google.com/books?id=l0...ntial equations cooper&client=safari&pg=PA95" is from a course I just finished in PDEs. It briefly explains the conditions. I'm sure there are better sources though.