Wave Propagation: An Introduction to Engineering Analyses

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.