Kansas State University

STEP 1: Plug in $\displaystyle y(x) = \sum_{n=0}^{\infty}a_n x^n $ and compute all the different terms in the equation $$ \begin{align} (-5x + 5)y &= \sum_{ n = 0 }^{ \infty }\,-5 a_{ n } x^{ n+1 } + \sum_{ n = 0 }^{ \infty }\,5 a_{ n } x^{ n }\\ (-6x^2 - 6)y' &= \sum_{ n = 1 }^{ \infty }\,-6n a_{ n } x^{ n+1 } + \sum_{ n = 1 }^{ \infty }\,-6n a_{ n } x^{ n-1 }\\ -4y'' &= \sum_{ n = 2 }^{ \infty }\,-4n(n-1) a_{ n } x^{ n-2 } \end{align} $$ STEP 2: Make the substitutions $ k = n-2 $, $ j = n-1 $ and $ p = n+1 $ to make all terms of the form $ x^{\text{index}} $ rather than the $ x^{\text{index}-1} $ or $ x^{\text{index}+2} $ or whatever. $$ \begin{align} (-5x + 5)y&= \sum_{ p = 1 }^{ \infty }\,-5 a_{ p-1 } x^{ p } + \sum_{ n = 0 }^{ \infty }\,5 a_{ n } x^{ n }\\ (-6x^2 - 6)y'&= \sum_{ p = 2 }^{ \infty }\,-6(p-1) a_{ p-1 } x^{ p } + \sum_{ j = 0 }^{ \infty }\,-6(j+1) a_{ j+1 } x^{ j }\\ -4y''&= \sum_{ k = 0 }^{ \infty }\,-4(k+2)(k+1) a_{ k+2 } x^{ k }\end{align} $$ STEP 3: Change all the indices to the same letter (I use $ m $) and plug into the equation. $$ \begin{align} -4y'' + (-6x^2 - 6)y' + (-5x + 5)y &= \sum_{ m = 0 }^{ \infty }\,-4(m+2)(m+1) a_{ m+2 } x^{ m } \\ &+ \sum_{ m = 2 }^{ \infty }\,-6(m-1) a_{ m-1 } x^{ m } + \sum_{ m = 0 }^{ \infty }\,-6(m+1) a_{ m+1 } x^{ m } \\ &+ \sum_{ m = 1 }^{ \infty }\,-5 a_{ m-1 } x^{ m } + \sum_{ m = 0 }^{ \infty }\,5 a_{ m } x^{ m } \end{align} $$ STEP 4: Collect like terms. $$ \begin{align} &(-8a_2 - 6a_1 + 5a_0) + (-24a_{3} - 12a_{2} + 5a_{1} - 5a_{0})x \\ &+ \sum_{ m = 2 }^{ \infty }\,(-4(m+2)(m+1)a_{m+2} - 6(m+1)a_{m+1} - 6(m-1)a_{m-1} + 5a_m - 5a_{m-1})x^m = 0 \end{align} $$ STEP 5: Equate coefficients to 0.

Equating the constant term to 0 we get $$ a_2 = \frac{6a_1 - 5a_0}{-8} $$ Equating the linear term to 0 we get $$ a_3 = \frac{12a_2 - 5a_1 + 5a_0}{-24} $$ Finally, equating the general term to 0, we find that for $ m \ge 2,$ $$ a_{m+2} = \frac{6(m+1)a_{m+1} - 5a_m - (-6(m-1)a_m - 5a_m)a_{m-1}}{-4(m+2)(m+1)} $$ STEP 6: We know that $ a_0 = y(0) = -6 $ and $ a_1 = y'(0) = 2.$ We then plug these values into the formulas found in step 5 to compute the coefficients of the solution.

From the equation for the constant term we get $$ a_2 = \frac{6(2) - 5(-6)}{-8} = -21/4 $$ From the equation for the linear term we get $$ a_3 = \frac{12(-21/4) - 5(2) + 5(-6)}{-24} = 103/24 $$ Finally, using the recurrence equation with $ m = 2 $ we get $$ a_4 = \frac{6(2+1)(103/24) - 5(-21/4) - (-6(2-1)(-21/4) - 5(-21/4))(2)}{-4(4)(3)} = -251/96 $$

So our solution is $$ y(x) = -6 + 2x - (21/4)x^2 + (103/24)x^3 - (251/96)x^4 + \cdots $$

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