Course info

Differential equations have wide applications in various engineering and science
disciplines. In general, modeling of the variation of a physical quantity, such as
temperature, pressure, displacement, velocity, stress, strain, current, voltage, or
concentration of a pollutant, with the change of time or location, or both would
result in differential equations. Similarly, studying the variation of some physical
quantities on other physical quantities would also lead to differential equations.
In fact, many engineering subjects, such as mechanical vibration or structural
dynamics, heat transfer, or theory of electric circuits, are founded on the theory of
differential equations. It is practically important for engineers to be able to model
physical problems using mathematical equations, and then solve these equations so
that the behavior of the systems concerned can be studied.