Standing Wave Simulation Using Maple

Waves are easy to simulate in Maple with use of the animate feature in the plots library. The following code only take a minute

to enter but is quite informative once executed:

>> with(plots): ** open plots library **

>> wave:=sin(t/10)*sin(2*Pi*x); ** set up function **

>>animate(wave,x=0..2,t=0..200,numpoints=1000);

Once you have executed the last line, a static graph will come up (it may even be blank). Do a RIGHT click on the graph and

from the menu that pops up, pick animation and then play. If you find that it oscillates too quickly, on the menu you get when

you right click, you can adjust the speed down.

When you watch the graph, pay particular attention to the places where the wave is always 0. This is what gives them their characteristics as standing waves. Feel free to play with the parameters! I made the string 2 units long here.