About the math involved in some physics equations ?

[bimbo36]

I have some questions about the kind of math involved in some physics equations .

Someone said many physics equations involve Ordinary and Partial differential equations

What sort of Ordinary or Partial differential equations are involved in Maxwell equations and Schrodinger equations ?

These are some rough notes i made while trying to learn differential equations and programming

I am not sure if the things i wrote down are right ?

Quote

Derivative is the rate of change of the dependent variable y with respect to the independent variable x , which is a number

Differential equations are equations which involve one or more derivatives or the rate of change of the dependent variable y with respect to the independent variable x , or dy/dx , which is a number ...

Which is a number in an unknown function

Partial derivative


The character ∂ is a stylized d mainly used as a mathematical symbol to denote a partial derivative such as ∂z / ∂x (read as "the partial derivative of z with respect to x")
A derivative of a function of two or more variables with respect to one variable , the other(s) being treated as a constant


Partial differential equation

An equation containing one or more partial derivatives .
The character ∂ is a stylized d mainly used as a mathematical symbol to denote a partial derivative such as ∂z / ∂x (read as "the partial derivative of z with respect to x")

Quote

Ordinary differential equations for ex dy/dx tells something about the relation between dependent variable y to the independent variable x ... which is a number of a certain variables in an unknown function

Partial differential equations for ex SquigglyDy/dx tells something about the relation between dependent variable y to the independent variable x ... which is a number of a certain variables in an unknown function

 

What does the variables in those equations represent especially in the Maxwell and Schrodinger's equation?

I can't understand much by looking into Wikipedia .

 

 

[studiot]

I thought when you posted before that a good place to start would be understanding variables, so what do you know about types of variable?

Do you understand the terms

Independent
Dependent
Extrinsic
Intrinsic
Extensive
Intensive
Scalar
Vector
Component
Coefficient
Constant
Parameter

Some of these have more significance in Maths, some in Physics.

You will need to know and understand what all of these are to understand equations in general, differentials equations more particularly and your chosen differential equations in particular.

 

That will be a good start but there is much much more after 5 thousand years of maths development.

[bimbo36]

Thanks for the reply studiot

I know what a dependent variable and independent variable are

I know what a scalar and vectors are .

I also understand what a Coefficient and constant are .
 

The rest i might have to google

I thought those equations and variables were about some  measurements of electron , electricity , magnetism etc .Which is why i thought i would post this question

Edited August 24, 2017 by bimbo36

[EdEarl]

Studiot is knowledgeable; you will do well to heed his advice.

There are various educational sites, a good one is https://www.khanacademy.org/math

[bimbo36]

Thanks , we had a lot of math programming with differential equations and numerical methods when i was doing computer science , Nowadays i have plenty of free time

So i thought i would try to understand some physics equations at free times , which is why the thread .

I don't know what exactly are we measuring here in these equations ?