Math 6B Section, Week 9

March 5, 2015
Exercise 1 (11.2.10,15) Find the Fourier series:

x 4 : 4 x 0
(a) f (x) =
x + 4 : 0 < x 4
x : x < 2
x
: 2 x < 2 .
(b) f (x) =
x + :
x<
2
Solution. I will just give you the answers, since you have probably seen enough of this kind
of thing by now.


R4
8
(a) The function is odd with bn = 24 0 (x + 4) sin n
x dx = n
.
4
R
R

/2
(b) The function is odd with bn = 2 ( 0 x sin(nx)dx + /2 ( x) sin(nx)dx) = n4 2 sin(n 2 ).

Exercise 2 (12.1.2,5) Verify that the following solve the wave equation for suitable c.
(a) u = x2 + t2
(b) u = sin(at) sin(bx).
Solution. (a) We have uxx = 2 = utt . Hence, u solves the wave equation for c = 1.
(b) We have uxx = b2 sin at sin bx and utt = a2 sin at sin bx. Hence, we have utt =
and u solves the wave equation for c = b/a.

b2
u
a2 xx


Exercise 3 (12.1.6,7) Verify that the following solve the heat equation for suitable c.
(a) u = et sin x
2 2
(b) u = e c t cos x.
Solution. (a) We have ut = et sin x whereas uxx = et sin x. Hence, u solves the heat
equation for c = 1.
2 2
2 2
(b) We have ut = 2 c2 e c t cos x whereas uxx = 2 e c t cos x. Hence, we have
ut = c2 uxx and u solves the heat equation for the given c.

Exercise 4 (12.3.6,7) Find u(x, t) for the string of length L = 1 and c2 = 1 when the
initial velocity is zero and the initial deflection is as follows.
(a) sin x 21 sin 2x
(b) x(1 x).
Solution. (a) Just to get used to the general technique behind separation of variables, we
will do this problem from scratch. Our problem is utt = uxx with boundary conditions
u(0, t) = u(1, t) = 0 and initial conditions u(x, 0) = sin x 21 sin 2x, ut (x, 0) = 0.
We write u(x, t) = F (x)G(t) and taking derivatives with respect to x and t, we find
1

utt (x, t) = F (x)G00 (t), uxx (x, t) = F 00 (x)G(t). Setting these equal we have F (x)G00 (t) =
F 00 (x)G(t) and we divide to find
F 00
G00
=
.
G
F
Since the left hand side depends only on t whereas the right depends only on x, we have
G00
F 00
=
=k
G
F
for some constant k.
(i) First we solve for F . We have that F 00 kF = 0. If k = 0 then F 00 = 0 and
hence F is of the form ax + b for constants a, b. The boundary conditions imply
that u(0, t) = bG(t) = 0. Since we assume G 6= 0, we find that b = 0. Similarly,
u(1, t) = (a + b)G(t) = aG(t) = 0 and we find a = 0. Hence, the case k = 0 is of
no interest.
If k > 0 then, setting k = p2 , we find F 00 p2 F = 0. The general solution to
this equation is F (x) = aepx + bepx . The conditions F (0) = F (1) = 0 imply that
a + b = aep + bep = 0. The system of equations

   
1 1
a
0
=
ep ep
b
0


1 1
has only the trivial solution a = b = 0 since the matrix
has nonzero
ep ep
determinant ep ep (recall that p 6= 0). Hence, this case is also of no interest.
Finally, we see that we must have k = p2 < 0. The general solution is now F (x) =
a cos(px) + b sin(px). We have the condition F (0) = a = 0 and F (1) = b sin p = 0
which implies that we must have p = n for some integer n (since b = 0 gives only
the trivial result F = 0). To obtain a particular solution, we set b = 1 and obtain
the solution Fn (x) = sin(px) = sin(nx).
(ii) Now we find G. We already have that k = p2 = (n)2 and therefore G solves
the equation G00 + (n)2 G = 0. The general solution is Gn (t) = An cos(nt) +
Bn sin(nt).
(iii) Finally, we will determine our solution u(x, t). We have the particular solution
un (x, t) = Fn (x)Gn (t) for the equation utt = uxx . However, in general un will not
satisfy our initial conditions. In fact, a finite sum of un s may not satisfy our initial
conditions. Therefore we seek a solution of the form

X
X
X
u(x, t) =
un (x, t) =
Fn (x)Gn (t) =
sin(nx) (An cos(nt) + Bn sin(nt))
n=1

n=1

n=1

(note that u0 = 0 since F0 = sin 0 = 0 so we need not consider u0 in our sum).

Our initial deflection gives

X
1
u(x, 0) =
An sin(nx) = sin x sin 2x.
2
n=1
The infinite sum represents the Fourier sine series for the function sin x 12 sin 2x.
We know (at least intuitively) by now that the coefficients of the sines on the left
2

must match the coefficients of the sines on the right. Hence, we get A1 = 1, A2 = 12
and An = 0 for n > 2.
We calculate ut (x, t),
ut (x, t) =

sin(nx)(nAn sin(nt) + nBn cos(nt)).

n=1

Hence, since our initial velocity ut (x, 0) is 0, we find that

ut (x, 0) =

sin(nx)(nBn ) = 0.

n=1

Since this is the Fourier sine series for 0, we must have nBn = 0 and therefore
Bn = 0 for each n.
Finally then, our solution is
u(x, t) =

sin(nx)(An cos(nt)) = sin(x) cos(t)

n=1

1
sin(2x) cos(2t).
2

The last equality just follows from substituting for An .

(b) Now we resort to the general equations derived in class. We have that u is equal to

sin(

n=1

n
cn
cn
x)(An cos(
t) + Bn sin(
t))
L
L
L

where
Z
Z L
2 L
n
2
n
f (x) sin( x)dx, Bn =
g(x) sin( x)dx
An =
L 0
L
cn 0
L
where u(x, 0) = f (x) and ut (x, 0) = g(x).
Here we have c = 1, L = 1, f (x) = x(1 x) and g(x) = 0. We have right off the bat
that Bn = 0. For An we calculate
Z
Z 1
2 1
n
An =
x(1 x) sin( x)dx = 2
x(1 x) sin(nx)dx.
1 0
1
0
After calculating the antiderivative, we find that this is equal to


2
1
2
1
2 3 3 x sin(nx) + 2 2 sin(nx) 3 3 cos(nx)
x(1 x) cos(nx) |10
n
n
n
n
and evaluating we find


2
2
4
4
An = 2 3 3 cos(n) + 3 3 = 3 3 ((1)n 1) = 3 3 ((1)n+1 + 1).
n
n
n
n
Therefore our solution is
u(x, t) =

X
n=1

4
n3 3

((1)n+1 + 1) sin(nx) cos(nt).


3

Exercise 5 (12.3.14) Find the deflection u(x, t) of the string of length L = and c2 = 1
for zero initial displacement and triangular initial velocity,

x
: 0 x 2
ut (x, 0) =
.
x : 2 x
Solution. As stated, we have L = , c = 1, f (x) = 0, and g(x) the triangular function
described. Since f = 0, we have An = 0 for every n. On the other hand,
!
Z
Z /2
Z
2
2
n
Bn =
g(x) sin( x)dx =
x sin(nx)dx +
( x) sin(nx)dx .
1n 0

n
0
/2
This is equal to





1
1
1
1
2
1
/2

x cos(nx) + 2 sin(nx) |0 + cos(nx) + x cos(nx) 2 sin(nx) |/2 .

n
n
n
n
n
n
This comes out to be

X
n=1

4
n3

sin(n 2 ). Hence, u is given by

sin(

X 4
4

n
x)(0 + 3 sin(n ) sin( t)) =
sin(n ) sin(nx) sin(nt).
3

n
2

n
2
n=1

This can be simplified a bit more by noticing that



0
: n is even
sin(n ) =
.
(n1)/2
(1)
: n is odd
2
Namely, we have

X
4
(1)k
u(x, t) =
sin((2k + 1)x) sin((2k + 1)t).
3
(2k
+
1)
k=0