Calculus: "Initial Problem" question.

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Soontir C'boath
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Calculus: "Initial Problem" question.

Post by Soontir C'boath »

I just came back from my exam and this question is driving me nuts.

It's an initial problem that must be solved and it is as follows:

cos(x) = (2y - e^y) dy/dx y(0)=1

First I see it as a seperable equation so it's:

cos(x) dx = (2y - e^y) dy and integrate it to:

-sin(x) = y^2 - e^y

Now, I'm here and I'm thinking I need a solution of a function y, but as you can see, there doesn't seem to be a way to solve for it with e^y unless I didn't learn something important about it. As such, I wrote on the exam that it was unsolvable.

Was I right?
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season."
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Post by Kuroneko »

It has no explicit solution, but the implicit solution is sin x = exp(y) - y² + 1 - e. There's nothing wrong with having an implicit solution; it may not be ideal, but it is better than no solution at all.
"The fool saith in his heart that there is no empty set. But if that were so, then the set of all such sets would be empty, and hence it would be the empty set." -- Wesley Salmon
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Soontir C'boath
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Post by Soontir C'boath »

Ahhhhh, thank you, Kuroneko.

P.S. - I like your sig.

Mod: Less more discussion is possible, please lock this thread at your discretion.
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season."
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