ABSTRACT
Linear differential and difference equations with constant coefficients play a very
important part in engineering problems. The solution of these equations is
reasonably simple and most system textbooks treat the subject in a gingerly fashion.
In reality, the thought process involved in the solution of these equations is
of fundamental importance. The parallelism between differential and difference
equations is emphasized. Matrix notation is introduced for its conciseness. The
treatment of matrix differential (or difference) equations is presented here in greater
detail. Furthermore, the stability of differential and difference equations has been
studied via second method of Liapunov including an extensive table of various
differential equations and conditions under which the systems representing these
equations are stable.
