4

Use Reduction of Order. With $y = x u$, $y' = u + x u'$, $y'' = 2 u' + x u''$, the equation becomes $\displaystyle x^3 u'' + 4 x^2 u' = x^3$, or (with $v = u'$), $\displaystyle v' + (4/x) v = 1$. The general solution to this first-order linear differential equation is $v = x/5 + C/x^4$. Integrating, we get $\displaystyle u = x^2/10 + C_1/x^3 + C_2$ (where $C_1 = -C/3$). Thus the general solution is

\begin{displaymath}y = \frac{x^3}{10} + \frac{C_1}{x^2} + C_2 x\end{displaymath}



Robert Israel
2002-03-09