In the characteristic coordinates, the chain rule gives and . Hence
Integrating this mixed derivative gives , a sum of oppositely traveling profiles. The initial data require and , so
Integrating the profiles and matching their total additive constant gives the D'Alembert formula with initial velocity:
Here names the initial surface displacement, rather than the water velocity appearing in the original shallow water equations. The formula verifies both initial conditions directly.
With and , the chain rule gives
Hence
so the wave equation is equivalent to . Integrating in each variable gives
The initial conditions imply
Solving and integrating yields the D'Alembert formula with initial velocity
If , then both and lie outside the support interval , and every point between them does as well. All three terms therefore vanish. Thus
which is finite propagation speed.
For the finite string, differentiate its energy and use :
The fixed-end conditions hold for every , so differentiation gives . The boundary term vanishes and
Here the D'Alembert formula with initial velocity becomes
When and
the integration interval contains the whole support . Since is odd,
Thus the requested region containing the line is
This is the central zero region for odd compactly supported initial velocity. The initial disturbance splits into left-moving and right-moving waves; after they pass, their opposite signed impulses cancel and leave an expanding undisturbed region around the origin.
Let . The initial data turn the wave equation into
Using the Green function from part (ii) with gives
Since
we obtain the D'Alembert formula with initial velocity