Bernoulli differential equations have the form:

where n represents a real number. For n = 0, Bernoulli's equation reduces to a linear first-order
differential equation.

Bernoulli differential equations may be solved by initially mulitplying both sides by y-n:

Substituting w = y1-n (with w' = (1 - n)y-n y' ), the above equation becomes:

The above equation may be solved for w(x) using techniques for linear differential equations and
solving for y.

Example:

Solve the equation y' + xy = xy3

Solution: