Abstract
A large part of the natural phenomena occurring in physics, engineering and other applied sciences can be described by a mathematical model, a collection of relations involving a function and its derivatives. The example of uniformly accelerated motion is typical, the relation being
where s = s(t) is the motion in function of time t, and g is the acceleration. Another example is radioactive decay. The rate of disintegration of a radioactive substance in time is proportional to the quantity of matter:
in which y = y(t) is the mass of the element and k > 0 the decay constant. The above relations are instances of differential equations.
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© 2008 Springer-Verlag Italia, Milan
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(2008). Ordinary differential equations. In: Mathematical Analysis I. Universitext. Springer, Milano. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-0876-2_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-88-470-0876-2_11
Publisher Name: Springer, Milano
Print ISBN: 978-88-470-0875-5
Online ISBN: 978-88-470-0876-2
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