Saladsamurai said:
I see what you mean. I guess then the real problem is that this "theory" that you speak of that I need to understand. I don't know what it is! All we are learning are these cookbook style methods for solving very specific kinds of diff eqs.
But when he takes all of these different kinds of diff eqs and throws them on a quiz, and they're not in standard form or whatever you call it, they all look the same. . . and they all look different all at once. Then it's trial and error.
Every one of these cookbook style methods has involved some very lofty assumptions that have yet to be explained to us.
So I do not have much of the theory of general approach to solving a diff eq.
Know what I mean.
I know exactly what you mean. When I was studying differential equations, I also learned the methods step by step and after every different method there were a number of exercises which were a direct application of the theory. That was not so difficult. However at the end of a few chapters there were a large set of problems that didn't state what method to use and solving those was the real challenge. Then you need to know all the different methods and learn how to "see" the correct solution. That was the perfect preparation for the exams. It takes time no doubt about that.
Saladsamurai said:
Edit: Also, this expression:exp\left(\int \frac{1}{Q}\cdot \left(\frac{\partial P}{\partial y}-\frac{\partial Q}{\partial x} \right) dx \right)
Does that just mean "e to the" all of that?
Yes it does. A very important class of equations is the one that is exact. Whether a differential equation is exact or not is easily checked. Write the equation as:
P(x,y)dx+Q(x,y)dy=0
It is exact if:
\frac{\partial P(x,y)}{\partial y} = \frac{\partial Q(x,y)}{\partial x}
If it is not, then you (sometimes) can make it exact by multiplying it with a function which is called the integrating factor. This factor can be found as I wrote a little earlier.
In the case of the equation you gave, it is:
\lambda(y)=exp\left(\int \frac{-1}{1}(0+2)dy \right)=exp(-2y)=e^{-2y}
If you multiply this with the original equation it becomes exact:
e^{-2y}dx-e^{-2y}(2x+y+1)dy=0
is exact and can be solved using the method of an exact differential equation.