ABSTRACT
Differential equations include ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and partial differential equations. This chapter focuses on integer order differential equations. It explores analytical solutions to a special class of ODEs. The chapter explains how linear time-invariant differential equations can be solved in MATLAB. It presents analytical solutions to a very special first-order nonlinear differential equation. The chapter also presents numerical algorithms for first-order explicit differential equations, with an illustrative MATLAB implementation. It discusses the modeling and solution of differential equations using Simulink environment with different kinds of examples. Solutions to the Simulink models are obtained by automatic simulation methods based on Simulink’s extensive libraries of building blocks. The chapter discusses and demonstrates analytical solutions for a limited class of ordinary differential equations. It is also noted that there is no analytical solutions to most nonlinear differential equations.
