Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-year-1-of-the-computer-science-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2016/discrete-mathematics-continuous-mathematics-and-probability-resit/4/d/solution

The substitution gives . Cancelling on both sides of the differential equation, for , gives
The initial condition is . This selects a positive solution locally, so separation of variables gives
Using gives , and continuity selects the positive square root:
The real solution containing has maximal positive domain . Its denominator tends to zero and as , a finite-time blow-up of an ordinary differential equation in the independent variable . Thus the source's wording “for ” needs this domain restriction; the prescribed initial value admits no real solution on the whole positive half-line. The division by loses the separate solution , but that solution does not meet the initial condition.

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