This unit is an optional unit at level 2 which is available not only to single subject, three and four year, first degree programmes in mathematics, but also joint programmes and students with a suitable mathematical background. This unit is of 10 UCU and is taught in Semester II by means of 15 lectures and is supported by three seminars.
Waves are everywhere.
Water waves on a pond are easily generated. Large ships, storms and tides generate waves on the ocean. Sound waves due, for example, to speech or to a stringed or wind instrument, propagate through the atmosphere. In this unit transverse waves on strings and membranes, longitudinal waves in solid bars and 3D elastic waves, are studied. Much of the underlying mathematics, for small amplitude waves, is common to all of these systems.