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If you've tried solving any differential equations, you probably know that many of them are either very difficult or impossible to solve. What do we do then? Usually the solution to a differential equation actually isn't that important. The question you usually want answered is what happens when I start at certain coordinates? What does the differential equation do?
If you have a spreadsheet program, then answering these questions is pretty easy. You don't need to solve the equation to find out what it does.
If you have a spreadsheet program, then answering these questions is pretty easy. You don't need to solve the equation to find out what it does.
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Signing UpStep 1Find a differential equation
First you need a differential equation that you want (or need) to solve. For my first example I'm going to use a simple equation that's easy to solve. dy/dx=ry. The solution is y=Aerx, where A is an arbitrary constant.
Type in a dx value and make a graph of the solution, it should look something like the second picture. For most differential equations, you wont know the solution, the only reason we're putting it in first here is to confirm that this method works.
Type in a dx value and make a graph of the solution, it should look something like the second picture. For most differential equations, you wont know the solution, the only reason we're putting it in first here is to confirm that this method works.
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Apr 7, 2009. 1:07 AM
westfw
says:
westfw
says:
Cute. Numerical Methods by spreadsheet is probably more intuitive than doing the old-fashioned computer program...
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