Wave Anatomy

Sketching with Math and Quasi Physics

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Sine Wave

Square Wave (Additive Synthesis)

$${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}x_{\text{square}}(t)&={\frac {4}{\pi }}\sum _{k=1}^{\infty }{\frac {\sin \left(2\pi (2k-1)ft\right)}{2k-1}}\\&={\frac {4}{\pi }}\left(\sin(2\pi ft)+{\frac {1}{3}}\sin(6\pi ft)+{\frac {1}{5}}\sin(10\pi ft)+\dots \right)\end{aligned}}}$$

Triangle Wave (Additive Synthesis)

$${\displaystyle {\begin{aligned}x_{{\mathrm {triangle}}}(t)&{}={\frac {8}{\pi ^{2}}}\sum _{{k=0}}^{\infty }(-1)^{k}\,{\frac {\sin \left(2\pi (2k+1)ft\right)}{(2k+1)^{2}}}\\&{}={\frac {8}{\pi ^{2}}}\left(\sin(2\pi ft)-{1 \over 9}\sin(6\pi ft)+{1 \over 25}\sin(10\pi ft)-\cdots \right)\end{aligned}}}$$

Sawtooth Wave (Additive Synthesis)

$${\displaystyle x_{\mathrm {reversesawtooth} }(t)={\frac {2}{\pi }}\sum _{k=1}^{\infty }{(-1)}^{k}{\frac {\sin(2\pi kft)}{k}}}$$

$${\displaystyle x_{\mathrm {sawtooth} }(t)={\frac {1}{2}}-{\frac {1}{\pi }}\sum _{k=1}^{\infty }{(-1)}^{k}{\frac {\sin(2\pi kft)}{k}}}$$

Simple Harmonic Motion

Simple harmonic motion is a type of periodic motion where the restoring force obeys Hooke's Law ( \(\mathbf F=-k\mathbf x\)). The motion is sinusoidal in time and demonstrates a single resonant frequency.

Wave Equation

One dimension

$${\displaystyle {\partial ^{2}u \over \partial t^{2}}=c^{2}{\partial ^{2}u \over \partial x^{2}}}$$

Approximation in Code

$$\frac{\partial^2u}{\partial t^2}\Rightarrow\;(u_{t+1}-u_t)\;-\;(u_{t-1}-u_t)\;=\;u_{t+1}\;+\:u_{t-1\;}-\;2u_t$$

$$c^2\frac{\partial^2u}{\partial x^2}\Rightarrow\;c^2\left[(u_{x-1}-u_x)\;-\;(u_{x+1}-u_x)\right]\;=\;c^2(u_{x-1}\;+u_{x+1\;}-\;2u_x)$$

$$u_{t+1}\;+\:u_{t-1\;}-\;2u_t=\;c^2(u_{x-1}\;+u_{x+1\;}-\;2u_x)$$

$$u_{t+1}\;=\;2u_t\;\;+\;c^2(u_{x-1}\;+u_{x+1\;}-\;2u_x)\;-\:u_{t-1\;}$$

Two dimensions

$$\frac{\partial^2u}{\partial t^2}=c^2\left(\frac{\partial^2u}{\partial x^2}\;+\;\frac{\partial^2u}{\partial y^2}\right)$$

$$\Rightarrow u_{t+1}\;=\;2u_t\;\;+\;c^2(u_{x-1}\;+u_{x+1\;}+u_{y-1}\;+u_{y+1\;}-\;4u_x)\;-\:u_{t-1\;}$$

Open WebGL Demo Source

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