MAT 22B: PROBLEM SET 1 SOLUTIONS

DUE TO FRIDAY OCT 4 AT 10:00AM

Abstract. These are the solutions to the first problem set for the Differential Equa-
tions Course in the Fall Quarter 2019. The Problem Set 1 was posted online on Friday
Sep 27 and was due Friday Oct 4 at 10:00am via online submission.

Information: These are the solution for Problem Set 1 as designed by Professor R.
Casals in his version of MAT22B Fall 2019. Problems are written in black and solutions
in blue.

Purpose: The goal of this assignment is to practice the basic techniques for solving
first-order differential equations. In particular, we would like to become familiar with
method of integrating factors and separation of variables.

Task: Solve Problems 1 through 7 below. The first 2 problems will not be graded but
I trust that you will work on them. Problems 3 to 7 will be graded.

Instructions: It is perfectly good to consult with other students and collaborate when
working on the problems. However, you should write the solutions on your own, using
your own words and thought process. List any collaborators in the upper-left corner
of the first page.

Grade: Each graded Problem is worth 20 points, the total grade of the Problem Set
is the sum of the number of points. The maximum possible grade is 100 points.

Textbook: We will use “Elementary Differential Equations and Boundary Value Prob-
lems” by W.E. Boyce, R.C. DiPrima and D.B. Meade (11th Edition). Please contact
me immediately if you have not been able to get a copy of any edition.

Writing: Solutions should be presented in a balanced form, combining words and sen-
tences which explain the line of reasoning, and also precise mathematical expressions,
formulas and references justifying the steps you are taking are correct.

Problem 1. Let t ∈ R be a real number and y(t) a differentiable real valued function.
Find all the solutions to the following differential equations:

(a) y 0 (t) = 1
1+t2
,

This equation can be integrated directly or solved by separation of variables:

dy 1
= ,
dt 1 + t2
1
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then Z
dt
dy = =⇒ y = tan−1 (t) + C.
1 + t2
(b) y 0 (t) = 3t2 − 4 + 1t − 7
t2
, for t > 0,

Solve by separation of variables:

1 7
dy = (3t2 + 4 +
− 2 )dt.
t t
Now take the anti-derivative of both sides such that
7
y(t) = t3 + 4t + ln t + + C.
t

(c) y 0 (t) = 5y(t),

Solve by separation of variables,

dy
= 5y.
dt
The solution y(t) ≡ 0 is constant and treated separately. Now, for the rest,
separate
dy
= 5dt,
y
and taking the integral of both sides we get
ln y = 5t + C, C ∈ R.
Solve for y(t) we obtain
y = e5t · eC1 ,
which we can write as y(t) = Ce5t , C ∈ R+ with let C = eC1 .

(d) y 00 (t) = −y(t).

Let your y(t) = C sin t, and note that cos(t) works as well, snice if you take the
derivative twice of sin(t) you get sin(t) which is what we wanted. The general
solution is any linear combination
y(t) = C1 sin(t) + C2 cos(t), C1 , C2 ∈ R.

Problem 2. Let t ∈ R, and consider the function

y(t) = arccos(t) + 4t2 .
(a) Find a first order differential equation which has y(t) as a solution.

Take the derivative such that

1
y 0 (t) = − √ + 8t.
1 − x2

(b) Find a second order differential equation which has y(t) as a solution.
 MAT 22B: PROBLEM SET 1 SOLUTIONS 3

Take the derivative of the equation in Part (a) s.t.

x
y 00 (t) = 3 + 8.
(1 − x2 ) 2

Problem 3. (20 pts) Consider the following differential equation:

3y(t)
y 0 (t) − = (1 + t)4 , t > 0.
t+1
(a) Find all the solutions to the differential equation above.

We solve the differential equation via integrating factors. Let your integrating
factor be
dµ(t) 3
= µ(t), µ(t) = (t + 1)−3 ,
dt t+1
which will multiply the original ODE in both sides. The left side will result in
the derivative of a product, via the chain rule:
d
[(t + 1)−3 y(t)] = (1 + t).
dt
Multiply the ODE with µ(t) throughout and then you take the intergral of both
sides,
1 1
(t + 1)−3 y(t) = t + t2 + C, y(t) = (t + 1)3 (t + t2 + C).
2 2

(b) Find all the solutions which satisfy y(0) = 3.

Solve for the equation of y(t) found in Part (a) for the initial condition y(0) = 3
to find the value of C. Indeed, if t = 0 then C = 3 so that the unique solution
is
1
y(t) = (t + 1)3 (t + t2 + 3).
2

(c) Are there any solutions y(t) such that y(0) = 3 and y(1) = 100 ?

Since this is a first order differential equations we have only one constant C ∈ R,
and using the initial condition in Part (b) we found C = 3. We verify that for
that solution, when t = 1 the value of the solution is y(1) = 36, and thus
y(1) 6= 100, and thus there are no solutions satisfying y(0) = 3 and y(1) = 100.

(d) Are there any solutions y(t) such that y(0) = 3 and y(1) = 36 ?

Yes, the solution in Part (b).

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Problem 4. (20 pts) Consider the following differential equation:

y 0 (t) + 2ty(t) = t, t > 0.

(a) Find all the solutions to the differential equation above.
2
We solve by via integrating factors. The integrating factor is µ(t) = et . Mul-
tiplying through we get
2 2 2 d t2 2
et y 0 (t) + 2et y(t) = tet , [e y(t)] = tet .
dt
By integrating both sides we get
2 1 2
et y(t) = et + C.
2
The formula for all solutions is thus
1 2
y(t) = + Ce−t .
2

(b) Let y1 (t) be the unique solution such that y1 (2) = 0.5, y2 (t) the unique solution
such that y2 (0) = 1, and y3 (t) the unique solution such that y3 (0) = 2. Compute
the long term behaviours
lim y1 (t), lim y2 (t), lim y3 (t)
t→∞ t→∞ t→∞

for these three solutions.

Using the answer from Part (a), solve the initial value problem to find the
constant C for each y1 (t), y2 (t)andy3 (t). For y1 (2) = 0.5, we find
1 1
= + Ce−4
2 2
so that the value of the constant is C = 0 and hence,
1
y1 (t) = ,
2
and since y1 (t) is constant to 0.5, then
1
lim y1 (t) = .
t→∞ 2
2
For y2 (0) = 1, 1 = 1
2
+ C, so C = 0.5, hence y2 (t) = 1
2
+ 12 e−t . Thus
1
lim y2 (t) = .
t→∞ 2
2
Finally, for y3 (0) = 2, we get C= 23 so y3 (t) = 1
2
+ 32 e−t . Taking the limit
limt→∞ y3 (t) we get
1
lim y3 (t) = .
t→∞ 2

(c) Plot the graph of the functions y1 (t), y2 (t) and y3 (t).
 MAT 22B: PROBLEM SET 1 SOLUTIONS 5

This is depicted in Figure 1, where y1 (t) is represented by the red line, y2 (t) by
the blue line, and y3 (t) by the green line

Figure 1. The solutions y1 (t), y2 (t) and y3 (t).

(d) Is there any solution y(t) which tends to ∞ in its long term behaviour ?

No. This is due to the fact that the only part that changes is C which is just
a constant, so if you consider the limit limt→∞ the answer is always 21 , hence
there is no solution y(t) that tends to infinity.
Problem 5. (20 pts) Consider the following differential equation:

t−3
y 0 (t) = y 2 · , t > 0.
t3
(a) Find infinitely many the solutions to the differential equation above.

This equation can be solved by separation of variables:

dy t−3 dy t−3
= y2 · 3 , 2
= 3 .
dt t y dt t
Note that since we are dividing by y(t), we take into account that the constant
function y(t) ≡ 0 is also a solution. By integrating on both sides:
1 1 3 1 2t − 3 − 2t2 C
− = − + 2 + C, − = .
y t 2t y 2t2
2t2
In conclusion, y(t) = 2t−3−2t2 C
.

(b) Solve the initial value problem given by the above differential equation and the
initial condition y(1) = −1.
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Let us use y(1) = −1 to find the constant C. We obtain

2(1)2
−1 = ,
2(1) − 3 − 2(1)2 C
2t2
and solving for C we get C = 12 . Thus, the solution would be y(t) = 2t−3−t2
.

(c) Is the constant function y(t) ≡ 0 a solution to the above differential equation ?

Yes, when substituted into the differential equation both sides vanish, and thus
they are equal.

Problem 6. (20 pts) Consider the following differential equation:

y 0 (t) = 2t(1 − y)2 , t∈R

(a) Find all solutions of the differential equation above.
Solve using separation of variables
dy
= 2t(1 − y)2 ,
dt
but we take into account that the constant solution y(t) ≡ 1 must be considered
separately, since otherwise we would be dividing by zero. Now, by separating:
dy
= 2tdt
(1 − y)2
and taking the intergral of both sides:
1
= t2 + C,
1−y
which simplifies to

t2 + C − 1
y(t) = .
t2 + C
The set of all solutions to the ODE is given by this formula above plus the
constant solution y(t) ≡ 1.

(b) Does there exist a solution y1 (t) such that y1 (2) = 1 and y1 (3) = 1 ?

Yes. The constant solution y1 (t) = 1 solves this initial value problem.

(c) Plot qualitatively the graph of six different solutions of the differential equation.

We use six different values for the constant C. We used the values 0 to 5 and
depicted them in Figure 2, where zero is blue, 1 is red, 2 is green, 3 is purple,
4 is dashed red line, and 5 is the black line.

(d) Find the long-term behaviour of all solutions for the differential equation.

The long-term behaviour of all solutions is 1. Indeed, the limit is always

limt→∞ y(t) = 1.
 MAT 22B: PROBLEM SET 1 SOLUTIONS 7

Figure 2. The solutions y1 (t), y2 (t) and y3 (t).

Problem 7. (20 pts) Consider the following differential equation:

y 0 (t) = y(t)(1 − y(t)), t ∈ R+ ,

(a) Find all solutions of the differential equation above.

We solve this differential equation by using separation of variables:

dy dy
= y(t)(1 − y(t)) =⇒ = dt.
dt y(1 − y)
Note however that we are missing the constant solutions y(t) ≡ 0 and y(t) ≡ 1,
which correspond to dividing by zero when rearranging. These solutions exist
and we consider them separately. Now we proceed, from here the right side can
be split using partial fractions:
 
1 1
− dy = dt.
y 1−y
Taking the integral on both sides we obtain
 
y
ln = t + C1 , C1 ∈ R,
1−y
y
and then we solve for y(t), and thus 1−y = et · eC1 . At this point, we can let
C = eC1 and write
y
= Cet , C ∈ R+ .
1−y

(b) Describe the possible long-term behaviour of a solution y(t) in terms of its ini-
tial value y(0).
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If the initial value y(0) is either 0 or 1 then its long-term behaviour is 0 and
1 respectively. If the initial value y(0) satisfies y(0) < 0, then the long-term
behaviour is −∞. If 0 < y(0) ≤ 1, then the long-term behaviour is 1, and
if 1 < y(0) then the solutions will also converge to 1, as y(t) ≡ 1 is a stable
constant solution.

(c) Compare the differential equation above with the differential equation

y 0 (t) = y(t), t ∈ R+ ,

as if they were two models for population growth, i.e. y(t) is the size of a
population at time t ∈ R. Which of the two models is more accurate ?

The differential equation y 0 (t) = y(t) has all solutions with long-term behaviour
growing to ∞, which is not a realistic model for a population growth. Thus
the model with y 0 (t) = y(t)(1 − y(t)), where some solutions converge to a finite
population, is more realistic.

(d) Consider the differential equation

y 0 (t) = λ · y(t)(1 − y(t)), t ∈ R+ , λ ∈ R+ .

How do the solutions differ for distinct values of λ ∈ R ?

The overall behaviour is the same, and the only difference from the original
differential equation is that the solutions converge at a different exponential
rate, given that their exponential behaviour is now marked with etλ , in contrast
to et .