Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2015/prelims/mathematics-v-resit/question-5/c/solution

Enforce the fixed-end Dirichlet boundary condition by taking the odd extension of the initial velocity to the whole line:
This agrees with the specified initial condition for . To derive the relevant form of D'Alembert's formula, the zero initial displacement in b gives , up to a cancelling constant. The initial velocity then gives . Hence
An antiderivative, valid across , is
Evaluation therefore gives the solution throughout :
For , replace by ; for , replace it by . Thus the same expression includes the reflected wave after it reaches the fixed end.
At the two terms agree, so . At they again agree, so . Differentiating the integral with respect to gives
which recovers . Since is a continuously differentiable function, the formula is twice continuously differentiable even across , and satisfies the wave equation there as well.

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