Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2014 / ib / Paper 4 / 14B / Solution

For $\mathrm{Re}s>0$, integration by parts recursively in the Laplace transform givesThe initial exponential boundary term vanishes, and $\mathcal{L}[1]=1/s$ starts the recursion. Here $H$ is the Heaviside step function.

Transform the displacement in time, writing $Y(x,s)={\mathcal{L}}_t[y](x,s)$. Zero initial displacement and velocity give $s^{2}Y=c^2{Y}_{xx}+g/s$. A particular solution is $g/s^3$, and the spatial homogeneous solutions are $e^{\pm sx/c}$. The prescribed far-field behavior excludes the growing exponential. The fixed boundary sets the remaining coefficient to $-g/s^3$, henceSince $\mathcal{L}[t^2/2]=1/s^3$, the Laplace transform time-shift rule givesEquivalently, $y=g{t}^2/2$ for $t\le x/c$, and $y=gxt/c-g{x}^2/(2c^2)$ for $t\ge x/c$. This solves the forced wave equation in each region and has continuous displacement and first derivatives across the characteristic $t=x/c$, so it also solves the equation weakly there. It satisfies the fixed-end and initial conditions and equals $g{t}^2/2$ sufficiently far away at each fixed time. The end's influence travels at speed $c$.