� Degree (when defined) of a differential equation is the highest power (positive
integer only) of the highest order derivative in it � A function which satisfies the given differential equation is called its solution The solution which contains as many arbitrary constants as the order of the
differential equation is called a general solution and the solution free from
arbitrary constants is called particular solution � To form a differential equation from a given function we differentiate the
function successively as many times as the number of arbitrary constants in
the given function and then eliminate the arbitrary constants