The final topic that we will consider is the study of differential equations.

Building blocks

1. TICKABLE Solving differential equations.

A video describing the concept.

A video demo.

We can use SymPy to solve differential equations. For example:

>>> import sympy as sym
>>> y = sym.Function('y')
>>> x = sym.symbols('x')
>>> sol = sym.dsolve(sym.Derivative(y(x), x) - y(x), y(x))
>>> sol
Eq(y(x), C1*exp(x))



The output given is an instance of the SymPy equation class that states:

Let us verify that the solution is correct:

>>> sym.diff(sol.rhs, x) == sol.rhs
True



Here is the more general equation:

>>> k = sym.symbols('k')
>>> sol = sym.dsolve(sym.Derivative(y(x), x) - k * y(x), y(x))
>>> sol
Eq(y(x), C1*exp(k*x))
>>> sym.diff(sol.rhs, x) == k * sol.rhs
True



Experiment with solving a modified version of the differential equation considered here.

2. TICKABLE Higher order differential equations.

A video describing the concept.

A video demo.

We can also solve higher order differential equations. For example, the following can be used to model the position of a mass on a spring:

>>> m, c, k, t = sym.symbols('m, c, k, t')
>>> x = sym.Function('x')
>>> sym.dsolve(m * sym.Derivative(x(t), t, 2) + c * sym.Derivative(x(t), t) + k * x(t), x(t))
Eq(x(t), C1*exp(t*(-c - sqrt(c**2 - 4*k*m))/(2*m)) + C2*exp(t*(-c + sqrt(c**2 - 4*k*m))/(2*m)))



Experiment with solving a modified version of the differential equation considered here.

3. TICKABLE Systems of differential equations.

A video describing the concept.

A video demo.

We can solve systems of differential equations like the following:

We still use dsolve we just pass it both equations as an argument:

>>> eq1 = sym.Derivative(x(t), t) - 1 + y(t)
>>> eq2 = sym.Derivative(y(t), t) - 1 + x(t)
>>> sym.dsolve((eq1, eq2))
[Eq(x(t), -C1*exp(-t) - C2*exp(t) + 1), Eq(y(t), -C1*exp(-t) + C2*exp(t) + 1)]



The solution is given as:

Experiment with solving a modified version of the differential equations considered here.

4. TICKABLE: Worked example: Solving and visualising the solution of a differential equation.

A video describing the concept.

A video demo.

Let us solve the following differential equation:

>>> y, x = sym.Function('y'), sym.symbols('x')
>>> eq = sym.Derivative(y(x), x) + 4 * y(x) - 5 * sym.exp(x)
>>> sol = sym.dsolve(eq, y(x))
>>> sol
Eq(y(x), (C1 + exp(5*x))*exp(-4*x))



As before the right hand side of our equation has a constant of integration which defines a whole family of solutions.

However, because this is a first order differential equation, only one of those equations will go through any given point. So let us assume that $$y(0)=1)$$ and find the particular solution of our differential equation.

>>> C1 = sym.symbols('C1')  # We're going to use this as a symbolic variable
>>> boundary_cond = sym.Eq(sol.rhs.subs({x: 0}), 1)
>>> boundary_cond
Eq(C1 + 1, 1)
>>> particular_constant = sym.solveset(boundary_cond, C1)
>>> particular_constant
{0}



So we can now create the particular solution:

>>> particular_sol = sol.subs({C1: list(particular_constant)[0]})
>>> particular_sol
Eq(y(x), exp(x))



We can plot this:

>>> sym.plot(particular_sol.rhs, (x, 0, 10))
<...



Further work

These questions aim to push a bit further.

5. Find the general solutions to the following 4 differential equations:

1. $$\frac{dy}{dx}-6y=3e^x$$
2. $$\frac{dy}{dx}+\frac{x(2x-3)}{x^2+1}=\sin(x)$$
3. $$\frac{d^2y}{dx^2}-y=\sin(5x)$$
4. $$\frac{d^2y}{dx^2}+2\frac{dy}{dx}+2x=\cosh(x)$$
6. For each of the differential equations from question 5, obtain particular solutions with the corresponding conditions and plot the solutions.

1. $$y(0)=3$$
2. $$y(0)=4$$
3. $$y(3)=1, y’(3)=0$$
4. $$y(1)=2, y’(1)=72$$

(Hint: to be able to solve the systems of linear equations for 3 and 4 you can use linear algebra or perhaps look at the sympy function: linsolve.)

7. The love story between Romeo and Juliet can be modelled with the following system of differential equations:

Where $$x(t)$$ represents the affection of Juliet towards Romeo and $$y(t)$$ the affection of Romeo towards Juliet (negative affection represents ‘hatred’).

Solve this system of equations and, assuming that Romeo is initially attracted to Juliet ($$y(0)=1$$) but that Juliet is initially indifferent to Romeo ($$x(0)=0$$), describe the long term relationship between the two characters.

Describe the behaviour of the system if Romeo and Juliet are initially indifferent to each other.

8. A battle between two armies can be modelled with the following set of differential equations:

Obtain the solution to this system of equations. Assuming that $$x(0)=100$$ and that $$y(0)=700$$ plot the two solutions of the equations, which army wins this battle? When does the battle end?

# Solutions

Solutions available.