Preparing for a PDE Presentation in 1.5 Weeks

[Wishbone]

I have to give a 35-50 minute presentation on PDEs in a week and a half for my class. I really don't have much knowledge of PDE's and I was wondering if anyone knew of any good internet rescourses etc. that would help me get a decent grasp so that I could make a decent presentation and answer a few questions.

I guess I was thinking of doing the speration of variables tecnique but I am open to other suggestions, thanks.

 

[FrogPad]

Check this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/sitbv3/reader/ref=sib_dp_pt/002-0747345-4245660?%5Fencoding=UTF8&asin=048667620X#reader-link&tag=pfamazon01-20

The book is cheap and may be a quick and dirty enough to give a presentation.

Also, if you don't want to purchase anything. Download these Maple presentations:
http://www.maplesoft.com/applications/app_center_view.aspx?AID=1553

You have to get a maple account, but it is free. These are really really nice. Very visual.

 

[Wishbone]

What about giving it on a certain function? I am worried that some of the people, might not learn anything new, its a senior level/grad course. Perhaps if I just concentrated on one function would it be better than simply giving a general talk on it?

 

[FrogPad]

You will have to wait for the big sluggers to come around. I've only taken one class on PDE's and it was very basic (covered laplace, heat, and wave equations, and Fourier series solutions).

I was just posting some links that I found very helpful when I took the class. I especially enjoyed the maple worksheets.

I found the wave equation to be very interesting. It was especially cool to see it graphed and move, to see how the information propagates. I believe one of those Maple worksheets yields a solution to the two dimensional wave by starting with separation of variables to fourier, and then has some nice animations.

I'm an engineering major, so seeing it "work" in action was what I really liked. Math majors might rather see the mathematical methods employed, and physicists might like seeing the derivation leading up to the actual expressions. Just depends on the audience I guess :)

 

[Wishbone]

hey thanks for those links, for the maple link, to view I guess I need maple, is there any trail download I can get to see the lesson?

I really thank you for your help, I have decided that I would like to do the wave equation. What do you think about maybe talking about a wave of a string or something classical like that, and then also doing a particle in an infinite sqaure well?

 

[JohanL]

Isnt that too basic for a 35-50 minute presentation in senior level/grad course? Maybe you could solve some problem numerically with a finite element method or analytically solve the Schrödinger equation for the hydrogen atom in sphereical coordinates(See Arfken for a short introduction)

 

[Wishbone]

not a bad idea, the hydrogen atom uses the separation of variables tecnique right? So I could go over an example of doing serperation of variables for a general PDE, and then go into solving the hydrogen atom?

Any other feedback would also be appreciated.