Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

Course: Physics of Waves(PH11003) Session: 2023-2024(Autumn)

Tutorial 0: Basic Mathematics

1. Review of complex numbers

For x = −5 + 12i and y = 4 − 3i, express the following both in Cartesian form (a + ib) and polar
form (Aeiϕ ):
(a) x − y
(b) y 2
(c) xy
(d) ey
(e) |x|
(f) yy ∗ (y ∗ is the complex conjugate of y)

2. Basic harmonic motion

(a) Sketch a graph of x(t) = 2.0cm + (1.5cm) cos((3.14rad/sec)t + 2π 3
rad). Label axes and show at
least 2 complete cycles. What is the amplitude A, period T and frequency f (in Hz) of this motion?
(b) Determine the values of xeq , A, ω0 , f , T , ϕ0 from the graph of x(t) = xeq + A cos(ω0 t + ϕ0 ) in
Figure 1. Approximate answers upto two significant figures.
3. Taylor Series
dy
(a) Given the differential equation : dx = y 3 + 2, y(0) = 3. Find the value of y(0.2) using Taylor
series expansion around x = 0 upto second order.
(b) Consider the function f (x) = cos x.
(i) Expand f (x) in a Taylor series about x = 0 and write down the first three non-vanishing terms.
(ii) Using the first two non vanishing terms in the expansion about x = 0, evaluate the value of
cos x at x = 12 .
(iii) Compare your result in part (ii) with the exact value of cos 12 and estimate the error associated
with approximating this function with the first two terms of the Taylor series.
(iv) Do you expect this error to depend on the value of x (which is x = 21 here). For example, if
we evaluated the first two terms at x = 13 instead of x = 21 , do you expect the error to increase or
decrease. Explain your answer.
(v) How does this error change if you keep all the first three (instead of two) non-vanishing terms
of part (i) to evaluate this function at x = 21 ?

4. Differential equations
d2 x
Consider the differential equation dt2
− 3 dx
dt
+ 2x = 0. If x = 0 at t = 0 and x = 1 at t = 1 then
find the value of x at t = 2.

5. Matrices
Find the
 eigenvalues
 and eigenvectors
  of thePauli matrices which are defined as:
0 1 0 −i 1 0
σx = σy = σz =
1 0 i 0 0 −1