Mathematica disagrees with solution obtained by odelin
Subject: Mathematica disagrees with solution obtained by odelin
From: Richard Hennessy
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 05:29:12 -0400
I tried in Maxima
(%i1) load(contrib_ode);
(eq_1) C:/PROGRA~1/MAXIMA~1.0/share/maxima/5.15.0/share/contrib/diffequations/contrib_ode.mac
(%i2) odelin(-'diff(y,x,2)+x^4*y=0,y,x);
...trying factor method
...solving 5 equations in 3 variables
...trying the Bessel solver
...solving 16 equations in 5 variables
...solving 16 equations in 5 variables
(eq_2) {bessel_j(-1/6,-(%i*x^3)/3)*sqrt(-x),bessel_y(-1/6,-(%i*x^3)/3)*sqrt(-x)}
(%i3) y=a*bessel_j(-1/6,-(%i*x^3)/3)*sqrt(-x)+b*bessel_y(-1/6,-(%i*x^3)/3)*sqrt(-x);
(eq_3) y=bessel_y(-1/6,-(%i*x^3)/3)*b*sqrt(-x)+bessel_j(-1/6,-(%i*x^3)/3)*a*sqrt(-x)
(%i4) ode_check(-'diff(y,x,2)+x^4*y=0,y=a*bessel_j(-1/6,-(%i*x^3)/3)*sqrt(-x)+b*bessel_y(-1/6,-(%i*x^3)/3)*sqrt(-x));(eq_4) 0
So therefore as a check I dumped this solution into Mathematica and it does not work. In Mathematica when you plug in the solution in line eq_3 into the differential eq you do not get zero. In fact you get
(in 1) f[x_] = a BesselJ[-1/6, -x^3/3] Sqrt[-x] + b BesselY[-1/6, -x^3/3] Sqrt[-x]
(in 2) FullSimplify[-D[f[x], {x, 2}] + x^4 f[x] == 0]
output
Sqrt[-x] x (a BesselJ[-(1/6), -(x^3/3)] + b BesselY[-(1/6), -(x^3/3)]) == 0
which by plugging in different values for x gives left hand side values # 0
On the other hand if you plug in Mathematica's answer to the same differential equation (which is different) and substitute it back in you get True as the output of FullSumplify[].
Does anybody know what's going on here?
Rich