APPLICATIONS OF FIRST ORDER ORDINARY DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS(FOODE)

I. ORTHOGONAL TRAJECTORY
II. WORD PROBLEMS

A. Growth/Decay F. Chemical Reactions/Chemical Conversion

B. Newton’s Law of Cooling G. Velocity of Escape of the Earth
C. Mixture H. Logistic Growth Price of Commodities
D. Electric Circuits I. Torriceli’s Law of Fluid
E. Gravitational Force

I. ORTHOGONAL TRAJECTORY

In geometry and physics, one of the applications of first ODE is to find a family of curves that
intersect at a given family of curves at right angles. To name a few, curves of equal
temperatures(isotherms) and curves of heat flow, curves of equal altitude(contour lines) on a map of
curves of steepest descent on the map, equipotential curves and curves of electric force are pairs of
orthogonal trajectories of each other. “Orthogonal” is another word for perpendicular and
“trajectory” means “cutting across”.

Definition: An Orthogonal Trajectory (O.T.) of a given family of curves is a curve that is

perpendicular to every curve of the family.

Given a family of curves:

F  x, y , c   0
Which can be represented by a D.E. M ( x, y )dx  N ( x, y )dy  0 , the

corresponding OT G  x, y, k   0 is obtained by determining the solution to the DE

N ( x, y )dx  M ( x, y )dy  0.

Examples: Find the orthogonal trajectory to the given family of curves. Draw the representative
members of the family.

1. Straight lines with slope and y-intercept equal.

2. All parabolas with vertex at the origin and foci on the x-axis. Also, find a particular OT at pt.
1,1.
3. Hyperbolas with center at the origin.
4. y  c1  cos x 
2
5. x  ce y

Exercises: Find the orthogonal trajectory to the given family of curves. Draw the representative
members of the family.

1. x  4y  c
2. y 2  cx 3
3.  
y x 2  1  cx
y
4. e e
x
c