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Homework Statement
How were the integral lines dt/a = dx/b derived from the PDE aUt + bUx = 0 where Ut is the partial derivative with respect to time and Ux with respect to x and a, b are constants.
Homework Equations
I honestly have no idea. I may be unprepared for this course as Strauss's book feels like it's skipping through a lot of steps.
If anyone could by chance explain or guide me to an explanation of how the Method of Characteristics (which I think is related here?) works that would be amazing. I just don't see how the system of ODEs comes from a PDE in the manner, for example, described here:
http://www.stanford.edu/class/math220a/handouts/firstorder.pdf
In particular where it says "...Curve C will satisfy the following system..."
Again, any help would be much appreciated. I'm more looking for a reason why all this should work.