Elastic transformation and its inverse transformation for solving first- and third-order nonlinear variable coefficient ordinary differential equations (Q6170585)

For a differentiable function \(y=y(x), y(x)\neq 0\), the expression of the elastic relationship between the independent variable \( x \) and the dependent variable \( y \) is given by \[ \eta(x)=\frac{x}{y}\frac{dy}{dx}\equiv\frac{Ey}{Ex}, \] where \( \eta(x) \) is the elastic function of \( y(x) \) with respect to \( x \) at the point \( x_{0} \). The concept of elasticity was proposed by \textit{A. Marshall} [Principles of economics. Vol. I. London. Macmillan and Co. (1890; JFM 22.0241.03)]. In this paper, the authors use elastic transformation and its inverse transformation to solve first- and third-order nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs) with variable coefficients. First, elastic transformations are used to reduce the first- and third-order nonlinear ODEs to a class of second order linear homogeneous ODEs. Then the general solutions of the first-and third-order ODEs are obtained separately by using the general solutions of the obtained second-order linear homogeneous ODEs, elastic transformation, inverse transformation of elastic transformation and related operation rules. This process has been summarized very lucidly in this paper.Examples and parametric analysis are provided to show the effectiveness of the method. This study provides a new method for solving ODEs. It is an interesting paper.