Why Muss with the “+C”?

Here is a way to find the particular solution of a separable differential equation without using the +C and it might even be a little faster. As an example consider the initial value problem

\displaystyle \frac{dy}{dx}=\frac{y-1}{{{x}^{2}}}\text{ with }x\ne 0\text{ and }y\left( 2 \right)=0

Separate the variables as usual and then write each side a definite integral with the lower limit of integration the number from the initial condition and the upper limit variable. I’ll replace the dummy variable in the integrand with an upper-case X or Y to avoid having x and y in two places.

\displaystyle \int_{0}^{y}{\frac{1}{Y-1}dY}=\int_{2}^{x}{{{X}^{-2}}dX}

Integrate

\displaystyle \left. \ln \left| Y-1 \right| \right|_{0}^{y}=\left. -{{X}^{-1}} \right|_{2}^{x}

\displaystyle \ln \left| y-1 \right|-\ln \left| 0-1 \right|=-\frac{1}{x}+\frac{1}{2}

Note that near the initial condition where y = 0, \left( y-1 \right)<0 so \left| y-1 \right|=-\left( y-1 \right)=1-y . Continue and solve for y.

\displaystyle {{e}^{\ln \left( 1-y \right)}}={{e}^{-\frac{1}{x}+\frac{1}{2}}}

\displaystyle 1-y={{e}^{-\frac{1}{x}+\frac{1}{2}}}

\displaystyle y=1-{{e}^{-\frac{1}{x}+\frac{1}{2}}},\quad x>0

No muss; no fuss.


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