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I have a question that asks to draw the direction field for the set of linear systems.

$\begin{align} \frac{d\,x}{dt} &= -x + y + 1 \\ \frac{d\,y}{dt}&=x+y+3\end{align}$

My attempt:

What I did first was set the system in the form of $d(Q)/dt = KQ + b$, then I found the critical points which was at $[2,1]$ and then I chose an arbitrary point in the plane, lets pick $[1,2]$, and set it as my Q and then solved and found the vector $[1,3]$ to be associated to that point, but this is where I have a problem. How will this vector be plotted? I am on point $[1,2]$ and the tangent vector is $[1,3]$ but how can I draw this? Will it go up 1 unit and right 3?

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See here for an explanation of what a direction field is.

At the point $(a,b)$, the tangent vector is $v=[-a+b+1,a+b+1]^T$, from the ODE system that you give.

Specifically at the point $(1,2)$, the tangent vector is $v=[0,4]^T$, which is a vector parallel to the $x$-axis ($0$ up and $4$ to the right). This process is then repeated for all points in the plane.

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    I will edit my post to update. I assumed you were correct.2012-10-01