Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2007 ii Paper 4 38C Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-14
For a plane acoustic wave propagating along , the linear momentum equation and dispersion give and . Therefore the instantaneous acoustic intensity isFor harmonic complex amplitudes the time average instead has the factor one half, .
For a radial velocity potential, set . The spherical wave equation reduces to , soNo incoming radiation from infinity means . Linearizing the moving-surface condition at gives , with real parts understood. Write the outgoing solution as . Its radial derivative at is . Therefore the outgoing acoustic field of a pulsating sphere isIn the far field the velocity amplitude has magnitude . Multiply its average plane-wave intensity by the spherical area to obtain the mean acoustic power of a pulsating sphere:This is positive outward radiated power, evaluated to leading quadratic order in the small real displacement amplitude.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 1 40C b i Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Use the acoustic velocity potential conventionFor a spherically symmetric outgoing wave with time dependence and , writeLinearizing the boundary condition at the mean surface givesSincewe findThus the outgoing acoustic field of a pulsating sphere is