How to solve this differential equation

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Mat
Mat on 23 Jan 2011
Hello,
Im pretty new to using Matlab, and I'm sort of confused on how to solve this equation in Matlab.
y'' + y = x^2
I have the symbolic tool box required, but I'm not sure if matlab can solve this equation. I also don't know the syntax properly on how I would ask Matlab to do this question.
  2 Comments
John D'Errico
John D'Errico on 23 Jan 2011
Are you looking for a symbolic or numerical solution? How would you turn this into a system of two first order differential equations? (hint: Differential Equations 101)
Paulo Silva
Paulo Silva on 23 Jan 2011
Here's two video tutorials for you Mat
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qH4bmHR1YM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx3bl4oA_0U
They are very simple :)

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Answers (2)

Walter Roberson
Walter Roberson on 23 Jan 2011
You might have to use a slightly different call for MuPad. In Maple it would look like,
dsolve(diff(y(t), t, t)+y(t) = x^2)
and the answer would be:
y(t) = sin(t)*_C2+cos(t)*_C1+x^2

Christopher Creutzig
Christopher Creutzig on 24 Jan 2011
MATLAB:
>> dsolve('D2y + y = x^2', 'x')
ans =
C10*cos(x) + C11*sin(x) + x^2 - 2
 
MuPAD:
solve(ode({y''(x) + y(x) = x^2}, y(x)))
2
{C2 cos(x) + C3 sin(x) + x - 2}

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