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Right Isosceles Triangular Membrane


WaveEquationTriangle

A right isosceles triangular membrane with leg length c, whose boundary is a right isosceles triangle with legs oriented along the positive x and y axes, has equation of motion

 psi(x,y,t)=[C_(pq)cos(omega_(pq)t)+D_(pq)sin(omega_(pq)t)][sin((ppix)/c)sin((qpiy)/c)-sin((qpix)/c)sin((ppiy)/c)],

where

 omega_(pq)=(piv)/csqrt(p^2+q^2)

and p, q integers with p>q. This solution can be obtained by subtracting two wave solutions for a square membrane with the indices reversed. Since points on the diagonal which are equidistant from the center must have the same wave equation solution (by symmetry), this procedure gives a wavefunction which will vanish along the diagonal as long as p and q are both even or odd. We must further restrict the modes since those with p<q give wavefunctions which are just the negative of (q,p) and (p,p) give an identically zero wavefunction.

The plots above show the lowest order spatial modes.


See also

1-Dimensional Wave Equation, Rectangular Membrane, Wave Equation

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Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Right Isosceles Triangular Membrane." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/RightIsoscelesTriangularMembrane.html

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