From Pendulum to Waves and Solitons

Abstract

Everyone has an intuitive understanding of waves on water. However, from the scientific veiwpoint, these waves are extremely complex objects. For this reason we will first study less known but much simpler waves. In this, we follow Newton who, in his study of the waves of sound, introduced a basic model of waves in chains of particles boudn by springs. Although these waves are only caricatures of the real waves in water, studying them will allow us to understand basic properties of all waves.