Is D'Alambert solution important for studying PDE?

yungman
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I want to know is it important to study D'Alembert solution? My main goal is to study Electromagnetics and wave equations, not the mechanical or heat equations.

Seems like it is just one way of solving the PDE.
 
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Well, the D'Alembert solution is for wave equations on a line with initial conditions, so that should, almost alone given your preferences, answer your question. It also pops up in deriving the solution for wave equations in higher dimensions (in particular, it is valuable for deriving the Kirchoff solution for a 3D wave and hence the solution in two dimensions), so yes, knowing D'Alembert's solution is useful. It's not like it's all that complicated, either.
 
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