UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2022

APM2616

Computer Algebra
Examiners:
First: MR M KGAROSE
Second: PROF JMW MUNGANGA

100 Marks
2 Hours

Welcome to the MODULE APM2616 examination.

This question paper consists of 7 pages.

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 Use of a any calculator is NOT allowed.
 Answer All Questions and Submit within the stipulated timeframe.
 Late submission will not be accepted.
 ALL CALCULATIONS MUST BE SHOWN.

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 4 APM2616
October/November 2022

QUESTION 1

A biological model produces the following system of differential equations

x0 (t) = −x(t) + 3y(t),

0
y (t) = −3y(t) + 5z(t),
0
z (t) = −5z(t),

with initial conditions x(0) = y(0) = 0 and z(0) = z0 . Write a MuPad code that solves the system for x, y and z
using initial conditions.
[25]

QUESTION 2

The Chebyshev polynomials of the fourth kind Wn (t), can be generated using the recursive relation

Wn+1 (t) = 2t Wn (t) − Wn−1 (t), n = 1, 2, . . . ,

with the first three polynomials given by

W0 (t) = 1,
W1 (t) = 2t + 1,
W2 (t) = 4t2 + 2t − 1.

Using MuPad,

(a) Write a procedure W(n,t) that takes two inputs n and t and outputs the Chebychev polynomials. (15)

(b) Using the program in Question 2(a), compute W0 (t), . . . , W5 (t). (5)

(c) Compute the values of W0 (t), . . . , W5 (t) for t = 1. (5)

[25]

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 5 APM2616
October/November 2022

QUESTION 3

(a) Obtain a numerical estimate for the following definite integral (10)
Z 4π
3
√
cos x 1 + cos x dx.
− 3π
2

(b) The Fourier representation of a function is given by (15)

X∞
sin(2n − 1) x
f (x) = .
n=1
2n − 1

Let
XN
sin(2n − 1) x
f (x) = ,
n=1
2n − 1
be the partial sums for some values N . Plot in the same graph, f1 , . . . , f15 .
[25]

QUESTION 4

Write a complete LATEX code to re–create the document on pages 6 and 7.

Please take note that manual referencing and manual labelling of equations, pages and citations will
not be allowed.
[25]

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 6 APM2616
October/November 2022

Introduction of the differential transform method

Student number
Department of Mathematical Sciences
University of South Africa
November, 2022

1 Introduction
The two most commonly applicable methods for solving first order ordinary
differential equations (ODEs) analytically are separation of variables and the
integrating factor method. At the end of their training, students have generally
an in depth knowledge of numerical approaches such as Heun’s method, Euler
and Runge–Kutta 4 (RK4). In this paper, we introduce the differential transform
method (DTM) for two reasons:
i) This method gives students a good sense of continuation; they were introduced
briefly to the Taylor series in the application of differentiation.
ii) This method although not new, (first introduced in the early 1986, indepen-
dently by Zhou and Pukhov) is gaining momentum among scholars [1, 2]
and the simplicity of the method has some pedagogical benefits.
The aim of this study is to introduce the DTM and MsDTM as efficient tools
in the teaching of linear and nonlinear differential equations at undergraduate
level.

2 Description of the DTM and the MsDTM

The differential transform method (DTM) is a numerical as well as analytical
method for solving integral equations [1, 2], ordinary, partial differential equations
and differential equation systems. The method provides the solution in terms of
convergent series with easily computable components.
The DTM, however, does have some drawback. By using the DTM, we obtain
a truncated series solution. This truncated solution does not exhibit the real
behaviours of the problem but, in most cases provides an excellent approximation
of the true solution in a very small region. To overcome this shortcoming, the
multi-step differential transform method (MsDTM) was used and presented in
[1] and [2]. By using the DTM, the interval [0, T ] is divided into M subintervals
and the series solutions are obtained in t ∈ [ti , ti+1 ] , i = 0, 1, .., M − 1. In some
problems, interval [0, T ] can require only a small subdivision of intervals.

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 7 APM2616
October/November 2022

2.1 Description of the DTM

It is well known that if a function u is infinitely continuously differentiable, then
u can be expressed in Taylor series as
∞
X 1 dk u(x0 ) k
u (x) = (x − x0 ) . (1)
k! dxk
k=0

We define the differential transform (DT) of u of order k, denoted by U (k), as

1 dk u(x0 )
U (k) = . (2)
k! dxk
In order to solve a given ODE or PDE by differential transform, we make use of
the differential transform of order k in (2). As in [1, 2], the differential inverse
transform of U (k) is defined as follows:
∞
X
u(x) = U (k)(x − x0 )k . (3)
k=0

In real applications, the function u(x) is expressed by a finite series and (3) can
be truncated, and will be denoted by uDT (K)
M
as

K
X
uDT M
(K) (t) = U (k)(t − t0 )k . (4)
k=0

P
∞
Equation (4) implies that U (k)(t − t0 )k is negligibly small and, in fact,
k=n+1
represents the error. The method for calculating this solution will be called
DTM(K) .

References
[1] A. Gökdog̈ana, M. Merdana, and A. Yildirim., Adaptive multi-step differ-
ential transformation method to solving nonlinear differential equations.
Mathematical and Computer Modelling, 55,761–769, 2012.
[2] M.J. Jang, C.L. Chen, and Y.C. Liy., On solving the initial-value problems
using the differential transformation method. Applied Mathematics and
Computation, 115,145–160, 2000.

c
UNISA 2022

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