Question on Ordinary Differential Equation (ODE)

a150daysflood
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Homework Statement



Find the ODE of the following
(1) du/dy = -u
(2) d^2u/dxdy = -du/dx


Homework Equations



For question 1, the answer is u= A(x)e^(-y)
while for question 2, the answer is u= e^(-y)(B(X) + c(Y))


The Attempt at a Solution



I've already solved the question, but just want to ask, if i change (1) to (2), its just a differentiation with respect to dx, but yet the solution contain a c(Y) term, any idea why is this so?
 
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To get those answers, these are PDEs, surely?
In (2), both sides have been differentiated partially wrt x. So any additive term that depends solely on y will have disappeared and cannot be reconstructed from the PDE. It's analogous to the constant of integration in ODEs.
 
If you differentiate (1) wrt x, then
d/dx (du/dy) = d/dy (du/dy) dy/dx = d2u/dy2 dy/dx, by chain rule.
 
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...
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