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By comparison with vector wave equations, the scalar wave equation can be seen as a special case of the vector wave equations; in the Cartesian coordinate system, the scalar wave equation is the equation to be satisfied by each component (for each coordinate axis, such as the x component for the x axis) of a vector wave without sources of waves ...
The electromagnetic wave equation is a second-order partial differential equation that describes the propagation of electromagnetic waves through a medium or in a vacuum. It is a three-dimensional form of the wave equation. The homogeneous form of the equation, written in terms of either the electric field E or the magnetic field B, takes the form:
A one-way wave equation is a first-order partial differential equation describing one wave traveling in a direction defined by the vector wave velocity. It contrasts with the second-order two-way wave equation describing a standing wavefield resulting from superposition of two waves in opposite directions (using the squared scalar wave velocity).
The Helmholtz equation has a variety of applications in physics and other sciences, including the wave equation, the diffusion equation, and the Schrödinger equation for a free particle. In optics, the Helmholtz equation is the wave equation for the electric field. [1] The equation is named after Hermann von Helmholtz, who studied it in 1860. [2]
Consider the Dirichlet problem for the wave equation describing a string attached between walls with one end attached permanently and the other moving with the constant velocity i.e. the d'Alembert equation on the triangular region of the Cartesian product of the space and the time:
The phase velocity is the rate at which the phase of the wave propagates in space. The group velocity is the rate at which the wave envelope, i.e. the changes in amplitude, propagates. The wave envelope is the profile of the wave amplitudes; all transverse displacements are bound by the envelope profile.
As an example of propagation without dispersion, consider wave solutions to the following wave equation from classical physics =, where c is the speed of the wave's propagation in a given medium. Using the physics time convention, e − iωt , the wave equation has plane-wave solutions u ( x , t ) = e i ( k ⋅ x − ω ( k ) t ...
The philosophy underlying Duhamel's principle is that it is possible to go from solutions of the Cauchy problem (or initial value problem) to solutions of the inhomogeneous problem. Consider, for instance, the example of the heat equation modeling the distribution of heat energy u in R n.