MATH2010: Engineering Mathematics II

Date:25/04/16

Assignment
Question 1
a Consider the following system of differential equations:
dx1
= x1 x2
dt
dx2
= 2x1 + 4x2
dt

(1)

(i) Show that the above equations can be written as the following first-order
system:

w = Dw,




2 0
r(t)
where D =
and w =
. Define r(t) and s(t) appropriately.
0 3
s(t)

(ii) Hence, find the solution of Eqs.(1) if x1 (0) = 1 and x2 (0) = 0.

[7 + 3 marks]
Question 2
Consider the problem
U
U
+ 2
= 0,
t
x
( x
, 0 < x < 1;
U(x, 0) = f (x) =
4
0, otherwise.
(i) Determine the equation of the characteristics and sketch the characteristics
through the points (x, t) = (0, 0) and (1, 0) respectively.
(ii) Determine the solution U(x, t).
(iii) Sketch the solution U(x, t) at t = 1, t = 1.5 and t = 2
[4 + 5 + 6 marks]
END-OF-PAPER