simplify zero input response as rjfjr noted this article is written at a fairly high level i imagine most students are going to encounter rlcs before they do any differential equations so i'm working on reworking this part of the article to use the cheating workaround that i've seen in classes where you just sort of say i t ae kt because it should now let's solve for k now we've got that way all we're assuming is high school algebra simple trig and de moivre's thereom i'm also considering adding a part that would describe a steady state solution with a driving voltage my biggest worry is that this article will end up being very incongruous but i think it's preferable so long as the first part is as transparent as possible