Waves (02VOAF) textbook
20.9.2023 (updated 17.9.2025)
Lecture material from 02VOAF
The current version can be downloaded here.
Credit: ClipArt ETC, University of South Florida, Free Classroom License
Errata
Feel free to find even the smallest typos and mistakes and report them to me! Thank you.
Source Code
The source code of the text is available here.
Changelog
Version 0.97 dated 17.9.2025
- In chapter 2.1.2, the approach via Taylor expansion was preferred over Lagrange’s theorem (i.e., the main text and the footnote were swapped).
- Added a new chapter 2.5 Boundary and initial conditions (and related adjustments to chapter 2.6).
- In chapter 2.6, the individual cases of the constant C were commented more clearly.
- In chapter 3.4.3, the decomposition of a wave packet into its sub-packets was explained more clearly.
- Added chapter 5.3 on cylindrical waves.
- Added chapter 7.1.3 on optical activity.
- The complex Jones polarization formalism was moved to a separate chapter 7.2.
- And other minor typo corrections.
Version 0.96 dated 23.9.2024
- Very minor revisions.
Version 0.95 dated 13.2.2024
- All the remaining chapters added.
Version 0.4 dated 26.10.2023
- The third and fourth chapter added – Dispersion relation, wave packets, group velocity, and Wave reflections.
Version 0.2 dated 5.10.2023
- The second chapter added – String vibrations and travelling waves.
\Version 0.1 dated 20.9.2023
- The first chapter added – Oscillations of systems with a finite number of degrees of freedom.
Version 0.0
- Non-existent material containing nothing.