Background of Second-Order Linear Differential Equations

The differential equations, usually the goal is to find a solution. In other words, we want to find a function (or functions) that satisfies the differential equation. The technique we use to find these solutions varies, depending on the form of the differential equation with which we are working. Second-order differential equations have several important characteristics that can help us determine which solution method to use. In this section, we examine some of these characteristics and the associated terminology. An equation containing the derivatives of one or more dependent variables, with respect to one or more independent variables, is said to be a differential equation (DE).