A differential equation is an equation that contains one or more functions with its derivatives. The derivatives of the function define the rate of change of a function at a point. It is mainly used in fields such as physics, engineering, biology and so on.
The first-order differential equation has a degree equal to 1. All the linear equations in the form of derivatives are in the first order. It has only the first derivative such as dy/dx, where x and y are the two variables and is represented as: dy/dx = f(x, y) = y’
The equation which includes second-order derivative is the second-order differential equation. It is represented as; d/dx(dy/dx) = d2y/dx2 = f”(x) = y”.
Differential equations can be divided into several types namely