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For $-u^{\prime \prime }+u=f$ with homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions, the conforming piecewise-linear hat functions on a uniform grid give a diffusion stiffness matrix $S$ and a mass matrix $M$. Their nonzero entries are $S_{ii}=2/h$, $S_{i,i+1}=-1/h$, $M_{ii}=2h/3$, and $M_{i,i+1}=h/6$, with symmetric counterparts. The sum is a positive-definite matrix because its coefficient quadratic form is $\int ((u_h^{\prime }{)}^2+u_h^2)$. For forcing $f(x)=x$, the load at $x_i$ is $h{x}_i$.

The spatial Galerkin method for the heat equation gives a mass matrix $M$ and a diffusion stiffness matrix $S$. With zero forcing, $\frac{d}{dt}(c^{T}Mc)=-2c^{T}Sc\le 0$. The quadratic form $c^{T}Mc$ is the squared L2 norm of the represented finite-element function, proving an energy contraction. For nonzero forcing, the corresponding identity has the additional term $2c^{T}F$, which can be estimated using the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality.

An upper mass $3m$ and lower mass $m$ joined by equal light strings of length $\ell$ have small-angle mass and stiffness matrices $m{\ell }^2\left(\begin{array}{cc}4& 1\\ 1& 1\end{array}\right)$ and $mg\ell \left(\begin{array}{cc}4& 0\\ 0& 1\end{array}\right)$. The squared frequencies are $2g/(3\ell )$ and $2g/\ell$, with angular eigenvectors $(1,2)$ and $(1,-2)$ respectively. Equal-angle release decomposes with coefficients $3\alpha /4$ and $\alpha /4$. The angles are measured from vertical, not between strings.