It depends upon what your goals are. My differential equations represent physical systems. Hence, I want them to think about a physical interpretation of the equilibrium points.
In my experience of teaching Maple to new users, I have found the workbook mode better at organizing the content. And, it provides a structure for them to add text groups, comments, separate problems, etc.
Using dot notation for differentiating with time...
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where the values of the constants are:
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The expected equilibrium points are where the rate of change vanishes:
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(1) |
Solving for where p, g are constant:
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(2) |
There are six locations. The most interesting ones are the last pair.
Evaluation with numbers:
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(3) |
For the development of the system, insert the values into the set of all equations:
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Solve, but make the output a list of procedures.
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(5) |
Extract out these procedures and use them as if they were functions.
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It is ready to plot. But before we do, we have to set the values for the initial values of p and g.
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Plotting the results given these initial conditions:
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We see where the evaluation of the system occurs. Physically, this is when we have waited a long time.
So, using the functions, we enter some large values for time:
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(6) |
The advantage of setting the initial values as parameters is that we can create a "what if" scenario. To do so, we create a plot procedure that sets the values of the initial values and then plots the system.
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Now, we Explore the plot:
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Now the user can locate the 3 pairs of equilibrium locations themselves.
Using parameterized solutions and Exploring them is so useful that I made a video (and linked to the associate document), which you can find here
https://youtu.be/6FDs8lDXGCs
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