Variation of parameters
Variación de parámetros
- Date
- 1766 · confidence high
- Place
- Berlin, Germany
- Credited to
- Joseph-Louis Lagrange
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What was discovered
General method devised by Lagrange to solve inhomogeneous linear differential equations, replacing the constants of the homogeneous solution with variable functions; it extends to partial differential equations as Duhamel's principle.
What it led to
- Standard technique for the analytical solution of differential equations in engineering and physics
- Later generalisation by Duhamel to the heat equation and other evolution equations
- Basis for numerical methods for inhomogeneous differential equations