Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2016 / ib / Paper 3 / 15B / c / Solution

For the wave equation, introduce characteristic coordinates $\xi =x-ct$, $\eta =x+ct$ when $c\ne 0$. The equation becomes $u_{\xi \eta }=0$, so $u=F(x-ct)+G(x+ct)$. The initial conditions imply $F+G=\varphi$ and $-c{F}^{\prime }+c{G}^{\prime }=0$. Constants can be absorbed into $F,G$, giving the D'Alembert formulaIf $\varphi$ vanishes outside $[-\alpha ,\alpha ]$, then $u(x,t)=0$ whenever $|x|>\alpha +|c|t$. Thus Property P fails: the wave equation has finite propagation speed $|c|$. No arbitrarily short time can transmit the disturbance arbitrarily far. If $c=0$, the zero initial velocity instead gives $u(x,t)=\varphi (x)$, and the conclusion still holds.