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The Wave Equation

This document guides the reader through deriving the wave equation, which describes waves. It outlines setting up the problem by sketching a sinusoidal wave and forces acting on it. It then calculates related terms like the net force and acceleration. This leads to writing Newton's second law for the system, obtaining the wave equation. The summary interprets solutions to the equation and offers a bonus of rewriting it in terms of wave velocity.

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6 views2 pages

The Wave Equation

This document guides the reader through deriving the wave equation, which describes waves. It outlines setting up the problem by sketching a sinusoidal wave and forces acting on it. It then calculates related terms like the net force and acceleration. This leads to writing Newton's second law for the system, obtaining the wave equation. The summary interprets solutions to the equation and offers a bonus of rewriting it in terms of wave velocity.

Uploaded by

6y7z4f7q9r
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Derivation Guide

The Wave Equation


Y&F 15.4

This sheet will guide you through the process of deriving the wave equation, one of
the most important equations in all of physics! The wave equation is an example of
the equations of motion of a physical system, in this case, for waves. Given some
system, the role of the equations of motion is that their solutions determine the
dynamics of the system. For example, the solutions of the wave equation describe
waves.

Follow the steps described below to carry out the derivation. If you get stuck, you can
refer to the equations or figures indicated at the end of each part, that will tell you
what your answer should look like.

Setup
• Sketch a snapshot of a sinusoidal wave travelling along a piece of string, where x is
the horizontal axis and y is the vertical axis through which the wave oscillates.
• Now, mark a small interval along the string, in your sketch.
• Make another drawing where you have zoomed in on this tiny portion of the string
that you have highlighted.
• What are the forces acting on the endpoints of this little interval of the string?
Draw these forces acting on these endpoints in your zoomed-in diagram.
• Draw how we would resolve these forces into horizontal and vertical components.
[Figure 15.13]
• In your diagram, what is the direction of motion of each endpoint on the string?
What must be true about the horizontal and vertical components of the forces
acting at each end point for this to be true?

Calculate
• The gradient of the wave at the point x is written as (𝑥). How are the
horizontal and vertical components of the forces, found at each endpoint of the
interval of string, related to the gradient at each endpoint? [Equations 15.15]
[hint: it might help to do an enlarged drawing of a single end-point of the interval to
see what is going on.]
• Suppose that the endpoints of your little interval of string are separated by an
interval Δ𝑥. Find an expression for the net force on the little interval of string in the
limit where Δ𝑥 goes to zero. [Equation 15.16]

( , ) ( , )
hint: lim
→
=
• Given that the displacement of a piece of the string at a point x at time t is given
by 𝑦(𝑥,𝑡), find an expression for the acceleration of the particle at the point x.
[Equation 15.17 (right-hand side only)]
• Newton’s Second Law of motion states that F = m a. Assuming that the mass
density of the string is denoted 𝜇, write down Newton’s second law for the little bit
of string. This is the wave equation! [Equation15.19]

Interpret

• Does the wave function 𝑦(𝑥,𝑡)=𝐴sin(𝑘𝑥−𝜔𝑡) solve the wave equation that you
have found? What conditions, if any, are required for this to be the case?
• Do you think that all solutions of the wave equation have the form of the wave
function shown during the lectures?

Bonus
• Use the result that you found in the interpret step to re-write the wave equation
where the only variable that appears, other than the gradient terms, is the wave
velocity.

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