Normal Modes and Waves Lectures
Normal Modes and Waves is a 12-lecture course given to first-year
undergraduates in Hilary Term. I gave this course in 2019 and 2020. Some of
the resources created for these lectures are available below.
There are two detailed handouts
covering major parts of the course:
Normal Modes Handout.
Energy in Waves Handout.
The following short handout connects the two major parts of the course
by obtaining the Wave Equation from a very large normal modes problem:
Modes to Waves Handout.
The Dispersive Wavepacket Plotter exhibits dispersion phenomena for
surface waves on water. Follow the link below and read the instruction pane.
Dispersive Wavepacket
Plotter
This is the problem Set I developed for the course. This set is still
being maintained (as at Dec 2022) and a solution set is available on request.
Problem Set