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Math 121A: Midterm Information

The second midterm exam for Math 121A will take place on April 3rd from 3:10-4pm. The exam will cover material from chapters 7-8 of the textbook including Fourier series, Fourier transforms, Laplace transforms, solutions to differential equations, and Sturm-Liouville theory. It will be closed book and students will be expected to know basic definitions but tables of transforms will be provided. The exam will consist of 4 questions worth 10 points each.

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75 views2 pages

Math 121A: Midterm Information

The second midterm exam for Math 121A will take place on April 3rd from 3:10-4pm. The exam will cover material from chapters 7-8 of the textbook including Fourier series, Fourier transforms, Laplace transforms, solutions to differential equations, and Sturm-Liouville theory. It will be closed book and students will be expected to know basic definitions but tables of transforms will be provided. The exam will consist of 4 questions worth 10 points each.

Uploaded by

cfisicaster
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Math 121A: Midterm information

• The second midterm will take place in class on Wednesday, April 3rd from 3:10pm–
4pm.
• The exam will cover Fourier series, Fourier transforms, Laplace transforms, solution
of differential equations, seperable solutions to PDEs, and Sturm–Liouville theory.
This corresponds to chapters 7 and 8 in the textbook, plus some of the additional
material covered in the lectures.
• The exam is closed book – no textbooks, notebooks, or calculators allowed.
• You will be expected to know the basic definitions, such as the definition the Fourier
series, complex Fourier series, Parseval’s theorem, convolution, Fourier transform,
and Laplace transform. However, it will not be necessary to memorize any tables of
results of Laplace and Fourier transforms—any that are needed will be given in the
question.
• There will be four questions, each of which will be graded out of ten points.

Sample midterm questions


1. Consider
y00 ( x ) − k2 y( x ) = f ( x )
for −∞ < x < ∞, subject to the boundary conditions

lim y( x ) = lim y( x ) = 0.
x →−∞ x →∞

Find a Green function solution of the form


Z ∞
y( x ) = G ( x, x 0 ) f ( x 0 )dx 0 .
−∞

2
2. Define hλ ( x ) = e−λx for any λ > 0.
(a) Calculate the Fourier transform h̃λ of hλ .
(b) Calculate the convolution g = hλ ∗ hµ .
(c) For the case of λ = 1 and µ = 2, sketch hλ , hµ , and g.
(d) Verify that the Fourier transform of g is equal to 2π h̃λ h̃µ .
You may use the result that
Z ∞ r
−λx2 π
e dx = .
−∞ λ
3. (a) By using Fourier and/or Laplace transforms, solve the partial differential equa-
tion
∂f ∂f ∂2 f
+c =b 2
∂t ∂x ∂x
for the function f ( x, t), where b > 0 and the initial condition is f ( x, 0) = δ( x ).
You may use the result that
Z ∞ r
−λx2 π
e dx = .
−∞ λ

(b) Write down a Green function solution to the problem

∂f ∂f ∂2 f
+c =b 2
∂t ∂x ∂x
subject to the initial condition f ( x, 0) = g( x ).
(c) Explicitly evaluate the solution in part (b) for the case when g( x ) = e−ax , and
check that it satisfies the partial differential equation and initial condition.

4. (a) Calculate the Fourier series of



0 for −π ≤ x < 0,
f (x) =
1 for 0 ≤ x < π.

(b) By using Parseval’s theorem, show that


∞
π2 1
= ∑ 2
.
8 n=0 (2n + 1)

5. Use Laplace transforms to solve the differential equation

y00 + 6y0 + 8y = e−3t

subject to the boundary conditions y(0) = 1 and y0 (0) = 0.

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