21.3.

2014

Differential Equation on the HP 50g

Differential Equation on the HP 50g

by

Merv Newton
Thiel College
Chapter 16 of the HP 50g User's Guide has a fairly complete set of instructions for using the calculator
to solve differential equations. Those instructions are intended for experts who know the theory and are
only interested in obtaining answers. This series of lessons is intended for students in an undergraduate
course in differential equations. The procedures discussed here are only for those types of differential
equations that are typically encountered in such a course, and are presented in a way that is intended to
help with understanding the theories encountered in such a course.
These lessons assume the reader is familiar with the general operation of the HP 50g. If you are new to
this calculator you may find it useful to first go through the lessons in HP-50g Calculator Tutorial.
Throughout these lessons you will see references to things like CTL 17. This tells you that you may find
something helpful in HP-50g Calculator Tutorial Lesson 17. If you find yourself going to these lesson
very frequently it may be helpful to open HP-50g Calculator Tutorial in a second instance of your
browser to make jumping back and forth easier.
Some of the examples in these lessons are based on examples and problems from Differential
Equations, A First Course by Guterman and Nitecki and are used with permission of the authors. The
original text is now out of print, but several chapters are still available at Indo American Books.
To understand the theory behind some of the solutions in Lesson 4 and Lessons 5 requires some
knowledge of complex numbers, particularly Euler's Formula. For those wishing to revue that material,
we recommend Complex Numbers and Trigonometry
These lessons are in PDF format and require the Acrobat Reader which is available free form Adobe.
Lesson 1
Separable Variables

Lesson 2
First Order Linear Equations

Lesson 4
Nth Order Linear Equations

Lesson 5
Systems of First Order
Linear Equations

Lesson 3
Bernoulli Equations

Below are other resources you may find helpful.

An Introduction to Programming HP Graphing Calculators

More Programming Commands

Cubic Splines on the HP 50g

Return to

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Resources page

Last Modified: August 1, 2011

If you have comments, questions, or corrections regarding this material please contact the author, Merv Newton
Copyright: Mervin E. Newton, 2011

https://resources.thiel.edu/MathProject/DIFFYQ/index.htm

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21.3.2014

Copyright: Mervin E. Newton, 2011

https://resources.thiel.edu/MathProject/DIFFYQ/index.htm

Differential Equation on the HP 50g

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