5/27/2017 DifferentialEquationsVariationofParameters

VariationofParameters
Inthelastsectionwelookedatthemethodofundeterminedcoefficientsforfindingaparticularsolutionto
(1)
andwesawthatwhileitreducedthingsdowntojustanalgebraproblem,thealgebracouldbecomequite
messy.Ontopofthatundeterminedcoefficientswillonlyworkforafairlysmallclassoffunctions.

ThemethodofVariationofParametersisamuchmoregeneralmethodthatcanbeusedinmanymorecases.
However,therearetwodisadvantagestothemethod.First,thecomplementarysolutionisabsolutely
requiredtodotheproblem.Thisisincontrasttothemethodofundeterminedcoefficientswhereitwas
advisabletohavethecomplementarysolutiononhand,butwasnotrequired.Second,aswewillsee,in
ordertocompletethemethodwewillbedoingacoupleofintegralsandthereisnoguaranteethatwewillbe
abletodotheintegrals.So,whileitwillalwaysbepossibletowritedownaformulatogettheparticular
solution,wemaynotbeabletoactuallyfinditiftheintegralsaretoodifficultorifweareunabletofindthe
complementarysolution.

Weregoingtoderivetheformulaforvariationofparameters.Wellstartoffbyacknowledgingthatthe
complementarysolutionto(1)is


Rememberaswellthatthisisthegeneralsolutiontothehomogeneousdifferentialequation.
(2)

Alsorecallthatinordertowritedownthecomplementarysolutionweknowthaty1(t)andy2(t)area
fundamentalsetofsolutions.

Whatweregoingtodoisseeifwecanfindapairoffunctions,u1(t)andu2(t)sothat

http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/Classes/DE/VariationofParameters.aspx 1/1