A differential equation is said to be linear if F can be written as a linear combination of the derivatives of y: where ai(x) and r(x) continuous functions in x. Non-linear equations cannot be written in this form. The function r(x) is called the source term, leading to two further important classifications:
A differential equation is said to be linear if F can be written as a linear combination of the derivatives of y: where ai(x) and r(x) continuous functions in x. Non-linear equations cannot be written in this form. The function r(x) is called the source term, leading to two further important classifications: