Differential Equations - Creating Slope Fields - Summary
A Summary of Making Slope Fields
This procedure may be used to make pictures of slope fields by hand, however, a far less tedious option is to have the computer follow these steps for you.
- Put the differential equation in the form dy/dx = g(x,y)
- Decide upon what rectangular region of the plane you want to make the picture
- Impose a grid on this region
- Calculate the value of the slope, g(x,y), at each grid point, (x,y)
- Sketch a picture in which at each grid point there is a short line segment having the corresponding slope
Hopefully those steps make sense... Anyway, let's get back to the main introduction.