Differential equations course webpage

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SAGE, MAPLE, TI92 examples

All SAGE code (if any) in the notes is licensed under the GPL, version 2 or greater (your choice).

MAPLE code + TI92 instructions are public domain.

  1. Newton's Law of Cooling (written by Mr Hoff using MAPLE).
  2. Plotting a solution to a differential equation using MAPLE
  3. Euler's method, improved Euler's method, and direction fields using MAPLE
  4. Euler's method, improved Euler's method, and direction fields using SAGE, and in pdf.
  5. the motion of springs with large displacements (written by Mr Hoff).
  6. Damped springs with forcing in MAPLE
  7. Modeling a radio station with two frequencies using differential equations
    (written by Mr. Nozik, using MAPLE)
  8. Eigenvalue method for 2x2 systems using MAPLE
  9. Euler's method for 2x2 systems using MAPLE
  10. Fourier series, cosine series, sine series using MAPLE
  11. solving the heat equation PDE with zero ends using MAPLE
  12. introduction to using MAPLE to solve ODEs
  13. instructions (written by Prof Hanna) for using the TI-92 to solve ODEs
  14. Short article written November 2008 for Mathematica Militaris with N. Albertson, C. Miller and N. Peters on Sage and DEs.

Sample Tests and quizzes
  1. Test 1, 1997 (with solutions, written by Mr Flores)
  2. Test 1, 1998 (with solutions, written by Ms Duggan).
  3. Quiz 1 (with solutions, written by Mr Doyle).
  4. Quiz 2 (with solutions, written by Ms Javier).
  5. team quiz on springs (no damping) (with solutions, written by Mr Fielder and Mr Durham ).
  6. Practice Test 2 pdf on constant coefficient ODEs, undetermined coefficients,
    springs, circuits, and variation of parameters (with solutions).
  7. review for test 2 written by Prof G. Nakos (a pdf file)
  8. Test 3 on systems, circuits, and Laplace transforms (with solutions, written by Mr Doyle).
  9. practice test 3 on systems, circuits, and Laplace transforms (with solutions)
  10. Spring 2009 Test 3 from Prof Gaglione with complete solutions, on systems, circuits, matrices and eigenvalues,
  11. practice test 4 on matrices, systems by eigenvalues, sine/cosine/Fourier series,
    separation of variables for PDEs and the heat equation. (with solutions)
  12. An old Test 4 on Fourier series and PDEs. Another old Test 4. And another old Test 4.
  13. Fall 1988 final in pdf. (1(b), 6(b), and 8 are not on this semester's syllabus, so you should skip them.
    Also, the diagram for 7(b) is missing, so you can skip that since it is incomplete.)

    Solutions (pdf) (written up by Mr. Holcomb).
  14. Fall 1991 final, in pdf. (1(c), 6(b), 9(a), and 9(b) are not on this semester's syllabus, so you can skip them.
    Solutions (pdf) (written up by Mr. Holcomb).
  15. Fall 1996 final, in pdf. With solutions. (1(a)(ii) and 6(b) are not on this semester's syllabus, so you can skip them.)
  16. Practice exam (Spring 2002) Multiple choice (pdf), Written portion (pdf). With answers.
    (5, 14, 16 and 17 on the MC portion are not on this semester's syllabus, so you should skip them. )
  17. Final exam (Fall 2003) pdf. With solutions.
  18. Final exam (Spring 2004) written pdf. multiple choice pdf. solutions pdf. (4 is not on this semester's syllabus, so you can skip it.)

Lecture notes (pdf files)

The files marked "(with SAGE examples)" also have source tarballs available (replace "de-*.pdf" by "de-*.tar.gz") and both are licensed under the Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons license. All SAGE code (if any) in the notes is licensed under the GPL, version 2 or greater (your choice).

  1. Introduction (with SAGE examples)
  2. Initial value problems (with SAGE examples)
  3. Existence and uniqueness (with SAGE examples). picard iteration Sage code.
  4. Euler's method for numerically approximating solutions to DEs.
    Includes both 1st order DE case (with Euler and improved Euler)
    and higher order DE and systems of DEs cases (without improved Euler). (with SAGE examples)
  5. 1st order ODEs, separable and linear cases (with SAGE examples)
  6. A falling body problem in Newtonian mechanics. (with SAGE examples)
  7. A mixing problem. (with SAGE examples)
  8. Linear ODEs, I (with SAGE examples)
  9. Linear ODEs, II (with SAGE examples)
  10. Undetermined coefficients for non-homogeneous 2nd order constant coefficient ODEs. (with SAGE examples)
  11. Variation of parameters for non-homogeneous 2nd order constant coefficient ODEs. (with SAGE examples)
  12. Annihilator method for non-homogeneous 2nd order constant coefficient ODEs.
  13. Springs, I (with SAGE examples)
  14. Springs, II (with SAGE examples)
  15. Springs, III (with SAGE examples)
  16. LRC circuits (with SAGE examples)
  17. Power series methods, I
  18. Power series methods, II (with SAGE examples)
  19. Introduction to Laplace transform methods, I (with SAGE examples)
  20. Introduction to Laplace transform methods, II (with SAGE examples)
  21. Review of Laplace transform methods (video in mpeg4 format, huge: 915M)
  22. Lanchester's equations modeling the battle between two armies. (with SAGE examples), Lanchester's equations lecture (video in mpeg4 format, huge: 730M), on google video (you can also download it from google video - the download is "only" about 140M).
  23. Row reduction/Gauss elimination method for systems of linear equations. (with SAGE examples)
  24. Eigenvalue method for homogeneous constant coefficient 2x2 systems of 1st order ODEs. (with SAGE examples)
  25. Variation of parameters for first order non-homogeneous linear constant coefficient systems of ODEs.
  26. Electrical networks using Laplace transforms (with SAGE examples)
  27. Separation of variables and the Transport PDE (with SAGE examples).
  28. Fourier series (with SAGE examples).
  29. one-dimensional heat equation using Fourier series (with SAGE examples).
  30. one-dimensional wave equation using Fourier series.
  31. one-dimensional Schroedinger's wave equation for a "free particle in a box" using Fourier series.
  32. All these lectures collected as one pdf (216 pages). The latest version, written with Marshall Hampton, is this pdf (197 pages). Licensed using the open source Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons license.
    The individual lectures were updated on 2008-12-01 but the 216 collection has not yet been updated and still has several typos. Please use the 197 page collection, which is the most recent of all.

Useful links
  1. For the power (Taylor) series method of solving DEs, see the links on the internet page Internet Resources for Series Solutions.
  2. The differential equations course at MIT's "open courseware" site. Includes lecture notes, exercises, and videotaped lectures (videos require realplayer). Some of the pdfs on the MIT website are hard to print out so some of them have been converted and posted locally.
  3. The excellent lecture notes and examples of Prof. Paul Dawkins.
  4. Regarding the 2-dim wave equation: "Can One Hear the Shape of a Drum?"
  5. Excellent lectures and videos on many areas of engineering mathematics, including some differential equations, can be found at the numerical methods website.

Math Tables

These are in the public domain.

New: 2006 version of the USNA Math Tables (pdf file - missing the probability tables, but with more calc+precalc info)
Same tables (pdf - but reduced 2-pages-to-a-page).
Laplace transform tables only (pdf file)
Laplace transform tables only (another version using newer fonts, pdf file)
Latex: source

Last modified 2009-8-24 by wdj