Separation of Variables for ODE

spaghetti3451
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Homework Statement



Solve the following equation by separation of the variables:

y' tan-1x - y (1+x2)-1 = 0

Homework Equations



The Attempt at a Solution




I am not sure if tan-1x stands for arctan x or (tan x)-1. (This has been taken out a book.) Any help on this would be appreciated.

If arctan x, then we have to integrate 1 / [(1+x2)(arctan x)] w.r.t x. No idea how to do this.

If (tan x)-1, then we have to integrate tan x / (1+x2) w.r.t. x. No idea on how to do this either.
 
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It's should be arctan(x). So
$$
y'\arctan(x)-\frac{y}{1+x^2}=0\\
\Rightarrow \int \frac{\mathrm{d}y}{y}=\int \frac{1}{1+x^2}\frac{1}{\arctan(x)}\, \mathrm{d}x\text{.}
$$
At this point it is helpful to note that
$$
\frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}x}\arctan(x)=\frac{1}{1+x^2}\text{.}
$$
So, your integral will just be a ##u## substitution. I believe you can take it from here?
 
SadScholar said:
It's should be arctan(x). So
$$
y'\arctan(x)-\frac{y}{1+x^2}=0\\
\Rightarrow \int \frac{\mathrm{d}y}{y}=\int \frac{1}{1+x^2}\frac{1}{\arctan(x)}\, \mathrm{d}x\text{.}
$$
At this point it is helpful to note that
$$
\frac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}x}\arctan(x)=\frac{1}{1+x^2}\text{.}
$$
So, your integral will just be a ##u## substitution. I believe you can take it from here?

Yeah, I think I can do the rest. Sub u = arctan(x) and find the answer to be y = k arctan (x).
 
I believe that's correct. And you can always plug your function for y back into the differential equation and make sure that it gives you a true statement.
 
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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