Definify.com

Definition 2024

difference equation ‎(plural difference equations)

Examples (restricted sense)
$3\Delta ^{2}(a_{n})+2\Delta (a_{n})+7a_{n}=0\,$

(mathematics) An equation involving an ordered sequence or real numbers ( $\left\{a_{n}\right\}_{n=1}^{\infty }$ ) and some number if it's differences, where the first difference is defined as $\Delta (a_{n})=a_{n+1}-a_{n}\,$ and the k^th difference is defined recursively as $\Delta ^{k}(a_{n})=\Delta ^{k-1}(a_{n+1})-\Delta ^{k-1}(a_{n})\,$ .
(mathematics) more broadly, any recurrence relation

math: type of equation

recurrence relation — see recurrence relation