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I'm looking for applications of second-order linear differential equations aside from mechanics, economics and electrical circuits. I was given hints to look on Ecology or other physics fields but it seems rather difficult to find something.

Can you point me to some other examples?

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    There are a lot of examples in physics. For example, the sound of a drum is given by the eigenvalue problem $\Delta u + \lambda u = 0$. Read a little about the Laplace operator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laplace_operator), it appears in an enormous number of physical contexts.2012-06-04
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    Also Lotka-Volterra prey-predator system is a good example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotka%E2%80%93Volterra_equation.2012-06-04
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    Lookup any of these (not to give preference to wikipedia): - Maxwell's equations for electrodynamics - Schrodingers' equation - Fokker-Planck diffusion equation2012-06-04
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    @Jon: I think the Lotka-Volterra system is neither linear nor second order in the given form.2012-06-04
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    @WillieWong: Right, I was off the mark.2012-06-04
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    Thanks, I forgot to point out that I was looking for one-variable equations. Looks like somehow I ignored completely unidimensional PDE.2012-06-04

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