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where the time-dependence of u(x) has been made explicit.

If the array of weights consists of N weights spaced evenly over the length L = Nh of total mass M = Nm, and the total spring constant of the
array K = k/N we can write the above equation as:

Taking the limit N → ∞, h → 0 and assuming smoothness one gets:

which is from the definition of a second derivative. KL2/M is the square of the propagation speed in this particular case.

Stress pulse in a bar

In the case of a stress pulse propagating longitudinally through a bar, the bar acts much like an infinite
number of springs in series and can be taken as an extension of the equation derived for Hooke's law. A
uniform bar, i.e. of constant cross-section, made from a linear elastic material has a stiffness K given by

Where A is the cross-sectional area and E is the Young's modulus of the material. The wave equation 1-d standing wave as a
becomes superposition of two waves traveling
in opposite directions

AL is equal to the volume of the bar and therefore

where ρ is the density of the material. The wave equation reduces to

The speed of a stress wave in a bar is therefore √E/ρ.

General solution

Algebraic approach

The one-dimensional wave equation is unusual for a partial differential equation in that a relatively simple general solution may be found.
Defining new variables:[8]

changes the wave equation into

which leads to the general solution

or equivalently:

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In other words, solutions of the 1D wave equation are sums of a right traveling function F and a left traveling function G. "Traveling" means
that the shape of these individual arbitrary functions with respect to x stays constant, however the functions are translated left and right with
time at the speed c. This was derived by Jean le Rond d'Alembert.[9]

Another way to arrive at this result is to note that the wave equation may be "factored":

As a result, if we define v thus,

then

From this, v must have the form G(x + ct), and from this the correct form of the full solution u can be deduced.[10]

For an initial value problem, the arbitrary functions F and G can be determined to satisfy initial conditions:

The result is d'Alembert's formula:

In the classical sense if f(x) ∈ Ck and g(x) ∈ Ck−1 then u(t, x) ∈ Ck. However, the waveforms F and G may also be generalized functions,
such as the delta-function. In that case, the solution may be interpreted as an impulse that travels to the right or the left.

The basic wave equation is a linear differential equation and so it will adhere to the superposition principle. This means that the net
displacement caused by two or more waves is the sum of the displacements which would have been caused by each wave individually. In
addition, the behavior of a wave can be analyzed by breaking up the wave into components, e.g. the Fourier transform breaks up a wave into
sinusoidal components.

Plane wave eigenmodes

Another way to solve for the solutions to the one-dimensional wave equation is to first analyze its frequency eigenmodes. A so-called
eigenmode is a solution that oscillates in time with a well-defined constant angular frequency ω, so that the temporal part of the wave function
takes the form e−iωt = cos(ωt) − i sin(ωt), and the amplitude is a function f(x) of the spatial variable x, giving a separation of variables for the
wave function:

This produces an ordinary differential equation for the spatial part f(x):

Therefore:

which is precisely an eigenvalue equation for f(x), hence the name eigenmode. It has the well-known plane wave solutions

with wave number k = ω/c.

The total wave function for this eigenmode is then the linear combination

where complex numbers A, B depend in general on any initial and boundary conditions of the problem.
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Eigenmodes are useful in constructing a full solution to the wave equation, because each of them evolves in time trivially with the phase factor
. so that a full solution can be decomposed into an eigenmode expansion

or in terms of the plane waves,

which is exactly in the same form as in the algebraic approach. Functions s±(ω) are known as the Fourier component and are determined by
initial and boundary conditions. This is a so-called frequency-domain method, alternative to direct time-domain propagations, such as FDTD
method, of the wave packet u(x, t), which is complete for representing waves in absence of time dilations. Completeness of the Fourier
expansion for representing waves in the presence of time dilations has been challenged by chirp wave solutions allowing for time variation of
ω.[11] The chirp wave solutions seem particularly implied by very large but previously inexplicable radar residuals in the flyby anomaly, and
differ from the sinusoidal solutions in being receivable at any distance only at proportionally shifted frequencies and time dilations,
corresponding to past chirp states of the source.

Scalar wave equation in three space dimensions

A solution of the initial-value problem for the wave equation in three space dimensions can be obtained
from the corresponding solution for a spherical wave. The result can then be also used to obtain the same
solution in two space dimensions.

Spherical waves

The wave equation can be solved using the technique of separation of variables. To obtain a solution with
constant frequencies, let us first Fourier-transform the wave equation in time as

So we get,

Swiss mathematician and physicist

Leonhard Euler (b. 1707)
discovered the wave equation in
three space dimensions.[6]
This is the Helmholtz equation and can be solved using separation of variables. If spherical coordinates are
used to describe a problem, then the solution to the angular part of the Helmholtz equation is given by
spherical harmonics and the radial equation now becomes [12]

Here k ≡ ω/c and the complete solution is now given by

(1) (2)
where hl (kr) and hl (kr) are the spherical Hankel functions.

Example

→ and look at the case when l = 0. In this case, there is no

To gain a better understanding of the nature of these spherical waves, let us go back
angular dependence and the amplitude depends only on the radial distance i.e. Ψ(r,t) → u(r, t). In this case, the wave equation reduces to

This equation can be rewritten as

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where the quantity ru satisfies the one-dimensional wave equation. Therefore, there are solutions in the form

where F and G are general solutions to the one-dimensional wave equation, and can be interpreted as respectively an outgoing or incoming
spherical wave. Such waves are generated by a point source, and they make possible sharp signals whose form is altered only by a decrease in
amplitude as r increases (see an illustration of a spherical wave on the top right). Such waves exist only in cases of space with odd dimensions.

For physical examples of non-spherical wave solutions to the 3D wave equation that do possess angular dependence, see dipole radiation.

Monochromatic spherical wave

Although the word "monochromatic" is not exactly accurate since it refers to light or electromagnetic
radiation with well-defined frequency, the spirit is to discover the eigenmode of the wave equation in three
dimensions. Following the derivation in the previous section on Plane wave eigenmodes, if we again
restrict our solutions to spherical waves that oscillate in time with well-defined constant angular frequency
ω, then the transformed function ru(r, t) has simply plane wave solutions,

or

Cut-away of spherical wavefronts,

with a wavelength of 10 units,
From this we can observe that the peak intensity of the spherical wave oscillation, characterized as the propagating from a point source.
squared wave amplitude

drops at the rate proportional to 1/r2, an example of the inverse-square law.

Solution of a general initial-value problem

The wave equation is linear in u and it is left unaltered by translations in space and time. Therefore, we can generate a great variety of
solutions by translating and summing spherical waves. Let φ(ξ, η, ζ) be an arbitrary function of three independent variables, and let the
spherical wave form F be a delta function: that is, let F be a weak limit of continuous functions whose integral is unity, but whose support (the
region where the function is non-zero) shrinks to the origin. Let a family of spherical waves have center at (ξ, η, ζ), and let r be the radial
distance from that point. Thus

If u is a superposition of such waves with weighting function φ, then

the denominator 4πc is a convenience.

From the definition of the delta function, u may also be written as

where α, β, and γ are coordinates on the unit sphere S, and ω is the area element on S. This result has the interpretation that u(t, x) is t times
the mean value of φ on a sphere of radius ct centered at x:

It follows that

The mean value is an even function of t, and hence if

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then

These formulas provide the solution for the initial-value problem for the wave equation. They show that the solution at a given point P, given
(t, x, y, z) depends only on the data on the sphere of radius ct that is intersected by the light cone drawn backwards from P. It does not
depend upon data on the interior of this sphere. Thus the interior of the sphere is a lacuna for the solution. This phenomenon is called
Huygens' principle. It is true for odd numbers of space dimension, where for one dimension the integration is performed over the boundary
of an interval with respect to the Dirac measure. It is not satisfied in even space dimensions. The phenomenon of lacunas has been extensively
investigated in Atiyah, Bott and Gårding (1970, 1973).

Scalar wave equation in two space dimensions

In two space dimensions, the wave equation is

We can use the three-dimensional theory to solve this problem if we regard u as a function in three dimensions that is independent of the third
dimension. If

then the three-dimensional solution formula becomes

where α and β are the first two coordinates on the unit sphere, and dω is the area element on the sphere. This integral may be rewritten as a
double integral over the disc D with center (x, y) and radius ct:

It is apparent that the solution at (t, x, y) depends not only on the data on the light cone where

but also on data that are interior to that cone.

Scalar wave equation in general dimension and Kirchhoff's formulae

We want to find solutions to utt − Δu = 0 for u : Rn × (0, ∞) → R with u(x, 0) = g(x) and ut(x, 0) = h(x). See Evans for more details.

Odd dimensions

Assume n ≥ 3 is an odd integer and g ∈ Cm+1(Rn), h ∈ Cm(Rn) for m = (n + 1)/2. Let γn = 1 ⋅ 3 ⋅ 5 ⋅ … ⋅ (n − 2) and let

then

u ∈ C2(Rn × [0, ∞))

utt − Δu = 0 in Rn × (0, ∞)

Even dimensions

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Assume n ≥ 2 is an even integer and g ∈ Cm+1(Rn), h ∈ Cm(Rn), for m = (n + 2)/2. Let γn = 2 ⋅ 4 ⋅ … ⋅ n and let

then

u ∈ C2(Rn × [0, ∞))

utt − Δu = 0 in Rn × (0, ∞)

Problems with boundaries

One space dimension

The Sturm–Liouville formulation

A flexible string that is stretched between two points x = 0 and x = L satisfies the wave equation for t > 0 and 0 < x < L. On the boundary
points, u may satisfy a variety of boundary conditions. A general form that is appropriate for applications is

where a and b are non-negative. The case where u is required to vanish at an endpoint is the limit of this condition when the respective a or b
approaches infinity. The method of separation of variables consists in looking for solutions of this problem in the special form

A consequence is that

The eigenvalue λ must be determined so that there is a non-trivial solution of the boundary-value problem

This is a special case of the general problem of Sturm–Liouville theory. If a and b are positive, the eigenvalues are all positive, and the
solutions are trigonometric functions. A solution that satisfies square-integrable initial conditions for u and ut can be obtained from expansion
of these functions in the appropriate trigonometric series.

Investigation by numerical methods

Approximating the continuous string with a finite number of equidistant mass points one gets the following physical model:

If each mass point has the mass m, the tension of the string is f,
the separation between the mass points is Δx and ui, i = 1, …, n
are the offset of these n points from their equilibrium points (i.e.
their position on a straight line between the two attachment
points of the string) the vertical component of the force towards
point i + 1 is

Figure 1: Three consecutive mass points of the discrete model for a string

     

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