Physics Commons^™

09 The Wave Equation In 3 Dimensions, Charles G. Torre

Foundations of Wave Phenomena

We now turn to the 3-dimensional version of the wave equation, which can be used to describe a variety of wavelike phenomena, e.g., sound waves and electromagnetic waves. One could derive this version of the wave equation much as we did the one-dimensional version by generalizing our line of coupled oscillators to a 3-dimensional array of oscillators. For many purposes, e.g., modeling propagation of sound, this provides a useful discrete model of a three dimensional solid.