In the fall semester of [redacted], my professor for a course on ordinary differential equations said, “There are two groups of people in the world: those who can solve first-order linear ordinary differential equations and those who can’t. By the end of this lecture, you will be in the first group.”
I clearly remember appreciating the cleverness of the integrating factor that we learned that day. I also recall the professor exhorting us not to memorize the final formula but to remember the approach.
Write a function to solve an equation of the form
y' + p(x) y = q(x)
with the condition y(x0) = y0. The function should return the values of y at the specified values of x.
Although MATLAB ODE functions are allowed, I would like someone to demonstrate how to implement the analytical approach using an integrating factor in MATLAB. Those who can will received the coveted unscored bonus points.
Solve

Solution Stats

28 Solutions

7 Solvers

Last Solution submitted on Sep 02, 2025

Last 200 Solutions

Problem Comments

Solution Comments

Show comments

Problem Recent Solvers7

David Hill minnolina Gengyue Ankitkumar Ratan

Suggested Problems

More from this Author322

Community Treasure Hunt

Find the treasures in MATLAB Central and discover how the community can help you!

Start Hunting!