Hello!
I'm trying to solve Homogeneous ODEs and I get the following:
Maxima 5.10.0 http://maxima.sourceforge.net
Using Lisp GNU Common Lisp (GCL) GCL 2.6.7 (aka GCL)
(Under Ubuntu Feisty)
(%i1) a : 'diff(y,x,3)+'diff(y,x,2)+'diff(y,x)+y=0;
(%o1) 'diff(y,x,3)+'diff(y,x,2)+'diff(y,x,1)+y=0
(%i2) ode2(a, x, y);
(%t2) 'diff(y,x,3)+'diff(y,x,2)+'diff(y,x,1)+y=0
msg1
(%o2) false
(%i3) load(contrib_ode);
(%o3) /usr/share/maxima/5.10.0/share/contrib/diffequations/contrib_ode.mac
(%i4) contrib_ode(a, x, y);
(%o4) false
I would expect Maxima to take the characteristic polynomial (lambda^3 +
l^2 + l + 1), found it's roots and return the general solution. Why
isn't it?
If I had given it a non-homogeneous equation I'd expect it to also use
the "constant variation method" (approximate translation, I don't know
how you call it in English) and use it to find the particular solution.
Maxima doesn't do this.
A friend told me that this isn't working in Maxima 5.12 under Win32 either.
Thanks
Ismael