1/17/2020 Properties of the scalar wave equation solutions

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 Benjamin Klein  Laser Photonics  Properties of the scalar wave equation solutions

PRO PERTIES O F THE SCALAR WAVE

EQUATIO N SO LUTIO NS
How does the solution

behave?  Well, we know that subtracting a number from the argument of a function shifts that
function to the right.  For example, suppose that is a Gaussian function of .  Replacing
with will shift the function to the right by a distance :

So when we’re considering , if we were to plot this function vs. at and also at
,  the version will be the same as the version except shifted to the right by a
distance .  If is a Gaussian, then, the plot of at the two times would look
like:

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1/17/2020 Properties of the scalar wave equation solutions

Since the function has moved in the positive direction by a distance in time , it must be
moving at a speed of .  In fact, we call the quantity the phase velocity.  The solutions to the
wave equation are waves, and is the speed at which the wave is moving.

I mentioned brie y that there is another possible solution to the scalar wave equation, namely:

Hopefully you can see that this will be a wave moving to the left (negative direction) with
speed .  In fact, if we went back to the more general form of the Helmholtz equation, we would
nd solutions moving in all possible directions in 3d space at speed .

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1/17/2020 Properties of the scalar wave equation solutions

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