Any wave equation describes the propagation in space-time of a wave (or periodic motion, oscillation, `physical perturbation' or `signal') in terms of certain types of differential equations (such as partial differential ones); the solutions of such wave equations-usually with additonal boundary conditions- are either propagating or stationary waves; there are numerous types of waves, and thus, there are many different types of wave equations. The following is a short list of such wave equations, that is however not intended to be comprehensive.
In its simplest form, the wave equation refers to a scalar
function
that satisfies:
=
where
is the Laplace operator, and where
is a fixed constant equal to the propagation speed
of the wave.
As of this snapshot date, this entry was owned by bloftin.