How to use ODE4 to solve second order ODE

How to use ode4 to solve second order ODE? ode4(https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/98293-is-there-a-fixed-step-ordinary-differential-equation-ode-solver-in-matlab-8-0-r2012b)

I tried to put in the following equation into matlab

.

Initial Condition:

This gave me an error

syms y(x)
Dy = diff(y);

ode = diff(y,2) == (1/4)*y + (1/2);
cond1 = y(0) == 0;
cond2 = Dy(0) == 1;
h = 0.5
y0 = [0 1];
tspan = 0:h:60
yx = ode4(ode, tspan, y0);
plot(tspan, yx)

Answer 1

[Torsten]

ode4 works with 1st order systems of ODEs. Yours is a 2nd order equation.

Can you write your equation as a system of two first order equations that ode4 would accept ?