Author: Cid, Jose Angel

Source: International Journal of Mathematical Education, Volume 40, Number 5, January 2009 , pp. 659-662(4)

Publisher: Taylor and Francis Ltd

Abstract:

We present an alternative method to that of Scott (D. Scott, When is an ordinary differential equation separable?, Amer. Math. Monthly 92 (1985), pp. 422-423) to teach the students how to discover whether a differential equation [image omitted] is separable or not when the nonlinearity f(x, y) is not explicitly factorized. Our approach is completely elementary and provides a necessary and sufficient condition for separability, as well as simple formulas for the explicit factors of f(x, y).

Keywords: separation of variables; separable functions; first-order differential equations

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207390802136578

Affiliations: 1: Departamento de Matematicas, Universidad de Jaen, Campus Las Lagunilas, Jaen, Spain

Publication date: 2009-01-01

More about this publication?

• Editorial Board
• Information for Authors
• Subscribe to this Title
• ingentaconnect is not responsible for the content or availability of external websites

Related content

• In this: publication
• By this: publisher
• In this Subject: Mathematics and Statistics ,  Education
• By this author: Cid, Jose Angel

Website © Publishing Technology. Article copyright remains with the publisher, society or author(s) as specified within the article.

• Terms and conditions
• Privacy policy
• Information for advertisers