Study Notes on Numerical Solutions of the Wave Equation with the Finite Difference Method

In this introductory work I will present the Finite Difference method for hyperbolic equations, focusing on a method which has second order precision both in time and space (the so-called staggered leapfrog method) and applying it to the case of the 1d and 2d wave equation. A brief derivation of the energy and equation of motion of a wave is done before the numerical part in order to make the transition from the continuum to the lattice clearer. To illustrate the extension of the method to more complex equations, I also add dissipative terms of the kind $-\eta \dot{u}$ into the equations. The von Neumann numerical stability analysis and the Courant criterion, two of the most popular in the literature, are briefly discussed. In the end I present some numerical results obtained with the leapfrog algorithm, illustrating the importance of the lattice resolution through energy plots.