Past exam of the mathematics course of the year 1 of the natural sciences course of the University of Cambridge / 2023 / Paper 1 / 13 / c / i

Use the substitution $v=y/x$ for a homogeneous first-order differential equation. Since $y^{\prime }=v+x{v}^{\prime }$, it givesWhere $\sin v\ne 0$, this separable differential equation integrates to $\ln |\sin v|=\ln |x|+C$, hence $\sin v=C_{1}x$. One can obtain the same relation without division by $\sin v$: the equation gives $(\sin v{)}^{\prime }=(\sin v)/x$, so $\sin v=C_{1}x$, including $\sin v\equiv 0$.

All real branches of the inverse sine are captured byEach branch is used on an interval with $x\ne 0$ and $|Cx|<1$, with fixed $k$. The strict inequality excludes zeros of $\cos (y/x)$, where the original tangent is undefined. When $C=0$, the formula includes all straight-line solutions $y=k\pi x$. Keeping both families of inverse sine branches is essential for the two different initial conditions below.