Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2024 ib Paper 2 17D b Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
A differential equation is stiff when it contains rapidly decaying modes on time scales much shorter than those of interest, forcing an explicit method to take very small steps for stability rather than accuracy.
Hereso the decay rates are and . For a negative real eigenvalue, forward Euler requirestherefore the fast mode imposesFor backward Euler the amplification factors arewhose moduli are at most one for every . ThusThis is the stiff two-mode linear system.