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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:

  1. Some problems simply have no solution.
  2. Some problems have no simple solution.
  3. Some problems have many solutions.
  4. Determining that a solution exists may be half the work of finding it.
  5. Solutions that work well locally may blow up when extended too far.
  6. Boundary conditions are the hard part.
  7. Something that starts out as a good solution may become a very bad solution.
  8. You can fool yourself by constructing a solution where one doesn’t exist.
  9. Expand your possibilities to find a solution, then reduce them to see how good the solution is.
  10. 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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