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Improved pedagogy for linear differential equations by reconsidering how we measure the size of solutions
Authors:Christopher C. Tisdell
Affiliation:1. Department of Applied Mathematics, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of New South Wales, UNSW, Sydney, Australiacct@unsw.edu.au
Abstract:For over 50 years, the learning of teaching of a priori bounds on solutions to linear differential equations has involved a Euclidean approach to measuring the size of a solution. While the Euclidean approach to a priori bounds on solutions is somewhat manageable in the learning and teaching of the proofs involving second-order, linear problems with constant co-efficients, we believe it is not pedagogically optimal. Moreover, the Euclidean method becomes pedagogically unwieldy in the proofs involving higher-order cases. The purpose of this work is to propose a simpler pedagogical approach to establish a priori bounds on solutions by considering a different way of measuring the size of a solution to linear problems, which we refer to as the Uber size. The Uber form enables a simplification of pedagogy from the literature and the ideas are accessible to learners who have an understanding of the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus and the exponential function, both usually seen in a first course in calculus. We believe that this work will be of mathematical and pedagogical interest to those who are learning and teaching in the area of differential equations or in any of the numerous disciplines where linear differential equations are used.
Keywords:Pedagogy  second-order differential equations  higher-order differential equations  linear differential equations  ordinary differential equations  initial value problems  a priori bounds  taxicab geometry  Manhattan distance  Uber metric  uniqueness of solutions
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