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I'm trying to solve the following problem:

Find the integrating factor and solve this first order differential equation:

3xy + y^2 + (x^2 + xy) * y' = 0

I'm trying to follow the solution process described here. Using the solution process took forever and I ended up with a monstrosity equation that I am unable to solve. It looks like I'm doing something incorrectly, but I don't know what. Is this an appropriate approach for this kind of problem? If it's not, what is a good strategy to work on problems like this?

Here's what I did so far:

First, I wrote the equation in the desired form:

(dy)/(dx) + (3x)/(x^2+xy)*y = -(y^2)/(x^2+xy)

Multiply both sides by u(x) to get:

u(x)*(dy)/(dx) + u(x)*(3x)/(x^2+xy)*y = -u(x)*(y^2)/(x^2+xy)

Assume u(x)*(3x)/(x^2+xy)*y = u'(x)*y (why do we get to make this assumption?)

Substitute that into the equation:

u(x)*(dy)/(dx) + u'(x)*y = -u(x)*(y^2)/(x^2+xy)

Use reverse product rule to get:

(u(x)*y)' = -u(x)*(y^2)/(x^2+xy) (I assume the derivate in the beginning is over dx?)

Integrate both sides:

u(x)*y + c = integrate(-u(x)*(y^2)/(x^2+xy) dx)

Now we want to solve u(x). I took the equation given for u(x) and substituted p(x) = (3x)/(x^2+xy) to get:

u(x) = e^integrate((3x)/(x^2+xy) dx)

Solving this we get:

u(x) = 3ln(x+y)

Substitute u(x) into our equation:

3ln(x+y)y + c = integrate(-(3ln(x+y)y^2)/(x^2+xy) dx)

I don't know where to go from here.

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    **Hint:** Multiply both sides by $\mu(x) = x$ and check to see if that makes it exact. Another approach, let $y = v x \implies y' = v + x v'$.2017-02-26
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    @ Atte Juvonen : If you don't write what you have done in details, how do you expect that one could show you where you did "something incorrectly" ?2017-02-27
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    @JJacquelin I didn't ask "show me where I did a mistake", I asked for an approach to solve this problem.2017-02-27
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    @ Atte Juvonen : You wrote "It looks like I'm doing something incorrectly, but I don't know what". If you are not interested to know what, bye-bye.2017-02-27
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    @JJacquelin Of course I want to know. Look, I think that this approach is not applicable to this problem, and therefore, it wouldn't make sense to fill the post with nonsense. But I will edit OP to show what I did.2017-02-27
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    Better use the method of "integrating factor" . It is also mentioned in the document referenced by yourself. Also, you cas see: http://mathworld.wolfram.com/IntegratingFactor.html . Sorry, I have not time just now to elaborate. Ill come back later. Let us know if you need more help.2017-02-27
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    This is the "integrating factor" method. I denote it with `u(x)` whereas your link denotes it with `v(x)`.2017-02-27

1 Answers 1

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After having a bref look at the method that you intend to use, I noticed that this method is valuable for a certain form of ODE. This is not the case of the ODE : $$3xy + y^2 + (x^2 + xy) y' = 0$$ where $p$ and $q$ are not functions of $x$ only.

We have to use a more general form of the method of integrating factors. The ODE can be presented as: $$(3xy+y^2)dx+(x^2+xy)dy=0$$ The aim it to find an integrating factor $\mu(x,y)$ in order to obtain a total derivative of a function $F(x,y)$ to be determined : $$\mu(x,y)\left((3xy+y^2)dx+(x^2+xy)dy \right)=dF(x,y)$$ so that, the ODE will become $dF(x,y)=0 \quad\to\quad F(x,y)=C$ $$dF=\frac{\partial F}{\partial x}dx+\frac{\partial F}{\partial y}dy \quad\to\quad \begin{cases} \frac{\partial F}{\partial x}=\mu(x,y)(3xy+y^2)\\ \frac{\partial F}{\partial y}=\mu(x,y)(x^2+xy) \end{cases}$$ $$\frac{\partial^2 F}{\partial x\partial y}=\frac{\partial }{\partial x}\mu(x,y)(x^2+xy)=\frac{\partial }{\partial y}\mu(x,y)(3xy+y^2)$$

$$(x^2+xy)\frac{\partial \mu(x,y) }{\partial x}+(2x+y)\mu(x,y)=(3xy+y^2)\frac{\partial \mu(x,y) }{\partial y}+(3x+2y)\mu(x,y)$$

At this point, the general process could become very complicated. Since the problem is probably a textbook case, we can suppose that $\mu(x,y)$ is a very simple function. We try more simple forms like $\mu(x)$ or $\mu(y)$ or more complicated if not adequate.

For example, with the variable $x$ only

$$(x^2+xy)\frac{d \mu(x) }{d x}+(2x+y)\mu(x)=(3x+2y)\mu(x)$$ This equation must contains functions of $x$ only $\quad\to\quad \begin{cases} x\frac{d \mu }{d x}+\mu=2\mu \\ x^2\frac{d \mu }{d x}+2x\mu=3x\mu \end{cases} \quad\to\quad \mu(x)=x$

We are not looking for the general solution for $\mu(x)$ : only any one particular solution is enough. So, $\mu=x$ is very well, because simple.

$$x\left((3xy+y^2)dx+(x^2+xy)dy \right)=dF(x,y)$$ $$(3x^2y+xy^2)dx+(x^3+x^2y)dy=dF(x,y)=0$$ $$d(x^3y+\frac{1}{2}x^2y^2)=dF(x,y)=0$$ $$F(x,y)=x^3y+\frac{1}{2}x^2y^2=C$$ $$x^2y^2+2x^3y-2C=0$$ $$y=\frac {-x^3 \pm \sqrt{x^6 +2Cx^2}}{x^2}=\frac {-x^2 \pm \sqrt{x^4 +C'}}{x}$$

IN ADDITION :

If we don't want to make an assumption about a simplified form for $\mu(x,y)$ we have to continue from the above equation : $$(x^2+xy)\frac{\partial \mu(x,y) }{\partial x}+(2x+y)\mu(x,y)=(3xy+y^2)\frac{\partial \mu(x,y) }{\partial y}+(3x+2y)\mu(x,y)$$

$$(x^2+xy)\frac{\partial \mu(x,y) }{\partial x}-(3xy+y^2)\frac{\partial \mu(x,y) }{\partial y}=(x+y)\mu(x,y)$$ Solving this PDE thanks to the method of characteristics starts from the set of ODEs for the characteristics curves : $$\frac{dx}{x^2+xy}=\frac{dy}{-(3xy+y^2)}=\frac{d\mu}{(x+y)\mu}$$ With the first ODE : $\frac{dx}{x^2+xy}=\frac{dy}{-(3xy+y^2)}$ not surprisingly we come back to the first beginning : $(3xy+y^2)dx+(x^2+xy)dy=0$. This is of no interest.

With the second ODE : $\quad\frac{dx}{x^2+xy}=\frac{d\mu}{(x+y)\mu}\quad\to\quad \frac{dx}{(x+y)x}=\frac{d\mu}{(x+y)\mu}\quad$ it is obvious that $\quad \mu=x\quad$ is a solution. We are not looking for all solutions for $\mu$. Only one (any one) is sufficient. This one $\mu=x$ is what we where looking for. The end of the calculus was already shown above.

NOTE :

Some particular forms for the integrating factor are ready-made, so avoiding a long calculus. For example , see the cases (11), (12), (13) in : http://mathworld.wolfram.com/OrdinaryDifferentialEquation.html

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    Thank you! I was able to follow along for the most part, but the very last step is confusing. The "textbook solution" also arrives at the same implicit solution `x^3 * y + 1/2 * x^2 * y^2 = C` but they derive a different explicit solution from it: `y = (-x^3 +- sqrt(x^6 + C'x^2)) / x^2`. No intermediate steps are given.2017-02-27
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    OK. There was a typo in my last equation. Now corrected.2017-02-28
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    In addition to my first answer, an alternative way to find an integrating factor.2017-02-28