Differential Equations 2020/21

MA 209

Extra questions from class 1, with partial answers

Question
Consider the ODE with initial condition:

x0 (t) = |x|,
p
with x(0) = 0.

(a) Show that x1 (t) = 0 for t ≥ 0 is a solution to this initial value problem.
(b) Show that x2 (t) = 41 t2 for t ≥ 0 is a solution to this initial value problem.
(
0, if 0 ≤ t ≤ 10;
(c) Show that x3 (t) given by x3 (t) = 1 2
is a solution to this initial
4 (t − 10) , if t ≥ 10
value problem.
(d) Can you find some more solutions for this initial value problem?
(e) Can you find solutions for this initial value problem that are valid for all t ∈ R?
p
(f) Sketch the graph of the function f (x) = |x| for x ∈ R. What do you notice?
(g) Try to find a solution to the ODE with initial condition:

y 0 (t) = |y|,
p
with y(0) = 1.

Answers/hints
(a) It’s easy to check that x1 satisfies both the ODE and the initial condition.
(b) Again, just check that x2 satisfies both the ODE and the initial condition.
(c) Don’t try to do this in one go. You need to check that x3 satisfies the initial condition,
which is straightforward. To check that x3 satisfies the ODE, you need to calculate the
derivative of X3 (t). For t ∈ [0, 10) and t ∈ (10, ∞), you get different formulas for the
derivative, but they all satisfy x03 (t) = |x3 (t)|.
p

The only complication is what happens for t = 10. You need to check that x3 is differ-
entiable for t = 10, and that the derivative indeed satisfies the ODE. The best way to
get an idea what is going on is by making a sketch of the graph of the function x3 (t) for
t ≥ 0. Once you’ve done that, it should be clear why x3 is differentiable in t = 10.
(d) Use the function in (c), replacing 10 with any other real number C, C ≥ 0.

Please turn over

c London School of Economics, 2019

(e) Many answers are possible, and you can use the earlier parts to get inspiration.
So a first solution might be x5 (t) = 0, for all t ∈ R.
From part (b) it might be very tempting to assume x6 (t) = 41 t2 is a solution for all t ∈ R.
q
But that is not correct, since that would give x06 (t) = 21 t, whereas |x6 (t)| = 14 t2 =
p
(
√ 1 2
1 1 4t , if t ≥ 0;
2
2 t = 2 |t|. A correct answer would be x7 (t) = This solution can also
− 14 t2 , if t ≤ 0.
be written as x7 (t) = 14 t|t|. Check for yourself that this function indeed is a solution.
(
1 2
t , if t ≥ 0;
Finally, an answer that is inspired by part (c) is x8 (t) = 4
0, if t ≤ 0.
( √
p x, if t ≥ 0; p
(f) You should note that |x| = √ and that |x| is always nonnegative.
−x, if t ≤ 0,
p
The graph will indicate that at x = 0, the function f (x) = |x| is not differentiable (the
line tangent to the graph at the point (0, 0) is vertical). It is exactly that fact that makes
that the ODE has no unique solution.
(g) Use the previous parts to get some inspiration of possible solutions.
A first guess, similar to part (a), could be y1 (t) = 1 for all t ∈ R. But this doesn’t satisfy
the ODE¿
A
( second guess, inspired by part (c), could be to look at functions of the form y2 (t) =
0, if t ≤ C;
1 2
These functions do indeed satisfy the ODE. And we can get
4 (t − C) , if t ≥ C.
y2 (0) = 1 by taking C = −2.
Finally, we could look at part (b) to see if some quadratic function satisfies the equations.
If we try to fit a function of the form y3 (t) = a(t + b)2 , it is straightforward to find the
solution y3 (t) = 41 (t + 2)2 . But looking at it a bit more careful shows that this is only a
solution for t ≥ −2.
If you want a solution for all t ∈ R, you need to do ( something like we did in (e) again.
1 2
4 (t + 2) , if t ≥ −2;
So possible answers are: y4 (t) = 14 (t + 2) · |t + 2| = 1
and y5 (t) =
− 4 (t + 2)2 , if t ≤ −2
(
1 2
4 (t + 2) , if t ≥ −2;
0, if t ≤ −2.