Dr. Phil's Home · Last Update: 15 April 2008 Tuesday
Honors Math Jay A. Wood 3305 Everett Tower Office: (269) 387-4542 Jay Wood's homepage, Jay Wood's HNRS-2900 webpage Honors Physics Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon 2203 Everett Tower Office: (269) 387-4942 OFFICE HOURS Class: W 4:00-4:50pm 2211 Rood Hall
Class Dates:
1. January 9 Introduction
2. January 16 Standing waves on a string, Wave eq'n in (x,t)
www.ams.org | Bulletin | Current Issue | Laks article
3. January 23 Standing waves demos in 1110 Rood
4. January 30 Dr. Phil snowbound, Dr. Wood on wave equations
5. February 6 Dr. Phil leaving early, Dr. Wood continues wave equations
6. February 13 Computer simulations of all types of musical instruments
Animusic and Animusic 2 DVDs in 1110 Rood
7. February 20 Looking at Fundamental and 1st Overtone diagrams as a
function of time; using Boundary and Initial Conditions
8. February 27 More on Boundary and Initial Conditions of wave equation.
-. Spring Break
9. March 12 An aside ripped from the trashcan on Eigenvalues and
Eigenfuctions. Fourier Series solutions to the wave equation.
10. March 19 The 2-D Standing Waves of the square drumhead. Modes of
vibration. Nodal lines. Discussion of types of solutions
for rectangular and circular drumheads. Steel drums. Describe
demo setup with a metal plate fixed at center, not at
edges. Demo: Find out which ultrasonic ringtones you
can hear!
11. March 26 The circular drumhead. Wave equation and separation of
variables in polar coordinates. Bessel's Equation.
An aside with the more general Euler Equation. And of course
the Greek alphabet -- so useful in math and physics equations.
12. April 2 *** Fill in the details of how we solve the radial part, R(r), of
the wave equation for the circular drumhead.
13. April 9 *** R(r) ends up as Bessel's Equation of the First Kind (J) or
Second Kind (Y). The latter has a singularity (infinity) at
r = 0. Not usuable unless drumhead has a hole in the center.
The J-functions resemble sin and cos functions, but not as
regular. Make an analogy between the n=0 J-function and
Web Search Activity -- looking for a good description and good
pictures for one of eight topics with a connection to the
work we've done this semester. Work in groups of two. URL's
for each group are to be sent to Dr. Phil by 9pm Tuesday 15
April 2008. (Click here for a copy of the handout.)
14. April 16 *** URL Presentations (URLs here)
NOTE: There is no Final Exam for this Seminar.