Wave Propagation

An engineering-oriented introduction to wave propagation by an award-winning MIT professor, with highly accessible expositions and mathematical details—many classical but others not heretofore published.

A wave is a traveling disturbance or oscillation—intentional or unintentional—that usually transfers energy without a net displacement of the medium in which the energy travels. Wave propagation is any of the means by which a wave travels. This book offers an engineering-oriented introduction to wave propagation that focuses on wave propagation in one-dimensional models that are anchored by the classical wave equation. The text is written in a style that is highly accessible to undergraduates, featuring extended and repetitive expositions and displaying and explaining mathematical and physical details—many classical but others not heretofore published. The formulations are devised to provide analytical foundations for studying more advanced topics of wave propagation.

After a precalculus summary of rudimentary wave propagation and an introduction of the classical wave equation, the book presents solutions for the models of systems that are dimensionally infinite, semi-infinite, and finite. Chapters typically begin with a vignette based on some aspect of wave propagation, drawing on a diverse range of topics. The book provides more than two hundred end-of-chapter problems (supplying answers to most problems requiring a numerical result or brief analytical expression). Appendixes cover equations of motion for strings, rods, and circular shafts; shear beams; and electric transmission lines.