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11: Boundary Value Problems and Fourier Expansions

  • Page ID
    9466
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    In this chapter we develop series representations of functions that will be used to solve partial differential equations in Chapter 12.

    • 11.1: Eigenvalue Problems for y'' + λy = 0
      This section deals with five boundary value problems for the differential equation y'' + λy = 0. They are related to problems in partial differential equations that will be discussed in Chapter 12. We define what is meant by eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the boundary value problems, and show that the eigenfunctions have a property called orthogonality.
    • 11.2: Fourier Series I
      Previously, we saw that the eigenfunctions of a specific type of differential equation are orthogonal. In this section and the next we introduce some series expansions in terms of these eigenfunctions. We’ll use these expansions to solve partial differential equationsThis section introduces Fourier series, which are expansions of given functions in term of sines and cosines.
    • 11.3: Fourier Series II
      This section deals with expansions of functions in terms of the eigenfunctions of four of the eigenvalue problems discussed in Section 11.1. They are all related to the Fourier series discussed in Section 11.2.


    This page titled 11: Boundary Value Problems and Fourier Expansions is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by William F. Trench via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.