Life lessons from differential equations
John D. Cook, who maintains a rich blog on things mathematical at http://www.johndcook.com/blog on Solving Hard Problems with the motto “Singular Value Consulting” posted the following material on 23 July 2015.
Life lessons from differential equations
Ten life lessons from differential equations:
- Some problems simply have no solution.
- Some problems have no simple solution.
- Some problems have many solutions.
- Determining that a solution exists may be half the work of finding it.
- Solutions that work well locally may blow up when extended too far.
- Boundary conditions are the hard part.
- Something that starts out as a good solution may become a very bad solution.
- You can fool yourself by constructing a solution where one doesn’t exist.
- Expand your possibilities to find a solution, then reduce them to see how good the solution is.
- You can sometimes do what sounds impossible by reframing your problem.
To which we add, “Points well taken! Thank you, John.”
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