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The PDE.

  The partial differential equation governing this problem for s(x,t) is the convection equation or ``one-way wave equation'',  
 \begin{displaymath}
 \d st + u \d sx = 0\end{displaymath} (6)
It is an example of a hyperbolic equation. Unlike the parabolic heat equation of the previous section, it allows singular solutions.

The one way wave equation also arises in much more general one-dimensional unsteady hyperbolic problems by using standard mathematical simplifications. For that reason, it is a very important equation in the analysis of numerical schemes.


Next: The initial condition. Up: The convection equation. Previous: The convection equation.