A Student's Guide to Waves

Waves are an important topic in the fields of mechanics, electromagnetism, and quantum theory, but many students struggle with the mathematical aspects. Written to complement course textbooks, this book focuses on the topics that students find most difficult. Retaining the highly popular approach used in Fleisch's other Student's Guides, the book uses plain language to explain fundamental ideas in a simple and clear way. Exercises and fully-worked examples help readers test their understanding of the concepts, making this an ideal book for undergraduates in physics and engineering trying to get to grips with this challenging subject. The book is supported by a suite of online resources available at www.cambridge.org/9781107643260. These include interactive solutions for every exercise and problem in the text and a series of video podcasts in which the authors explain the important concepts of every section of the book.

Introduction; 1. Wave fundamentals; 2. The wave equation; 3. Wave components; 4. The mechanical wave equation; 5. The electromagnetic wave equation; 6. The quantum wave equation; References; Index.

Daniel Fleisch is a Professor in the Department of Physics at Wittenberg University, where he specializes in electromagnetics and space physics. He is the author of several Student's Guide books, including most recently A Student's Guide to the Mathematics of Astronomy (Cambridge, 2013).
Laura Kinnaman is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Morningside College, where she carries out computational research in chemical physics and organizes the Physics Club.