solving differential equation

[greg.smith]

Hi there,

I've been trying to solve this different via numerical methods(C
programming) and it's
driving me crazy....

I can't post my code because it's simply one big mess and doesn't work.

d^2y/dx^2 - 1/(L^2)*y .... where L is just some arbitrary number......L =
0.2045....

I cannot figure this out, I was thinking matlab might be easier but I really
want to learn to do this via the C language. I just want to solve for
values of Y, and plot them against x.

Any help is appreciated,

gs

[Jens.Toerring]

greg.smith <pg*****@hotmail.com> wrote:

I've been trying to solve this different via numerical methods(C
programming) and it's driving me crazy.... I can't post my code because it's simply one big mess and doesn't work. d^2y/dx^2 - 1/(L^2)*y .... where L is just some arbitrary number......L =
0.2045....
That's not an equation, just a sum of two terms (or do you mean that's
the left hand side and the other side is 0), and your also not telling
about the boundary conditions or initial values for y and y' which you
will need for a numerical solution.
I cannot figure this out, I was thinking matlab might be easier but I really
want to learn to do this via the C language. I just want to solve for
values of Y, and plot them against x.

You don't show any code and you don't tell what method you try to use
(there are quite a number of methods of varying quality) so what kind
of help are you expecting? Have you been looking at "Numerical Recipes
in C" by Press et al.? While the code in the book is quite horrible,
chapter 16 and 17 give a useful introduction to numerically solving DEs
(and more information than you can expect from Usenet postings). You
can download the chapters from e.g.

http://www.library.cornell.edu/nr/bookcpdf.html.

Regards, Jens
--
_ _____ _____
| ||_ _||_ _| Je***********@physik.fu-berlin.de
_ | | | | | |
| |_| | | | | | http://www.physik.fu-berlin.de/~toerring
\___/ens|_|homs|_|oerring

[Martin Ambuhl]

greg.smith wrote:

Hi there,

I've been trying to solve this different via numerical methods(C
programming) and it's
driving me crazy....

I can't post my code because it's simply one big mess and doesn't work.

d^2y/dx^2 - 1/(L^2)*y .... where L is just some arbitrary number......L =
0.2045....

I cannot figure this out, I was thinking matlab might be easier but I really
want to learn to do this via the C language. I just want to solve for
values of Y, and plot them against x.

Any help is appreciated,

Using D to stand for the second derivative of y with respect ot x,
whether the form is

D = 1/(L*L*y)
or
D = y/(L*L)

the answer is trivial as a closed form exercise. When you can do something
trivially in closed form, it is an *error* to use numerical methods.

--
Martin Ambuhl

[Bigdakine]

>Subject: solving differential equation

From: "greg.smith" pg*****@hotmail.com
Date: 9/21/03 6:58 PM Hawaiian Standard Time
Message-id: <bp*******************@read1.cgocable.net>

Hi there,

I've been trying to solve this different via numerical methods(C
programming) and it's
driving me crazy....

I can't post my code because it's simply one big mess and doesn't work.

d^2y/dx^2 - 1/(L^2)*y .... where L is just some arbitrary number......L =
0.2045....

I cannot figure this out, I was thinking matlab might be easier but I really
want to learn to do this via the C language. I just want to solve for
values of Y, and plot them against x.

Well you should be able to get the solution to that one with just pencil and
paper.
Stuart
Dr. Stuart A. Weinstein
Ewa Beach Institute of Tectonics
"To err is human, but to really foul things up
requires a creationist"