Orthogonal series and boundary value problems Solving the wave equation by separating the variables


This is an evaluated Mathematica notebook. If you have Mathematica or MathReader (which is available free from WRI, you may download the notebook file. This notebook contains some Mathematica calculations for chapter IV, Calculating Fourier series of Harrell's WWW textbook.

Solution to Problem IV.5

Solution by Richard W. Cowan, April 1996, edited for length by
Evans M. Harrell, II, (c) copyright 1996, all rights reserved


Calculate the Fourier Series for the functions f(x) = x^2, x^3, and x^4. Calculate them
on the intervals a) [-Pi, Pi] and b) [0,1]

The formulae for these coefficients are:

a[0] := (1/L) Integrate[f[x], {x,0,L}] (the average of f)
a[m] := (2/L) Integrate[f[x] Cos[2 Pi m x/L], {x,0,L}], m = 1, 2, ...
b[n] := (2/L) Integrate[f[x] Cos[2 Pi n x/L], {x,0,L}], n = 1, 2, ...

Part a) Find the Fourier Series for the functions f(x)=x^2, x^3, and x^4 on the interval [-Pi,Pi]

Part b) Find the Fourier Series for the functions f(x)=x^2, x^3, and x^4 on the interval [0,1]


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