Math 142 Homework Problems

Only the best 10 of 15 or more problems will be counted towards the homework grade. If for
some reason n fewer problems than 15 are assigned all quarter, you will only be graded based on
the best 10 n of 15 n.
Problems 10 12 are due Wednesday, August 31, 2016.
10. The Shallow Water Equations
We shall consider an incompressible, inviscid (viscosity is negligible), irrotational flow of a
fluid. We suppose that the fluid flows over a flat surface where its height at position x R
and time t [0, ) is h(x, t).
Supposing that the horizontal length scale L is much larger than the vertical height
scale A, derive the shallow water equations for the velocity in the xdirection
u(x, t) and fluid height h(x, t) as a leading order asymptotic system. The equations
are written below in dimensional form (g = 9.8 m/s2 ):
ht + (hu)x = 0
1
(hu)t + (hu2 + gh2 )x = 0
2
Note the velocity w in the zdirection does not appear in the system!
11. Red light
Back in around 1936, Greenshields developed a model for traffic flow. He observed that if
denotes the linear density of cars (number of cars per unit length) then along a highway,
the cars obeyed an approximate law that u(x, t) = umax (1 (x, t)/max ) where u(x, t) is the
speed of the traffic flow at position x and time t, umax is the speed limit, and max is the
maximum possible car density.
Based on this observation, show that a dimensionless model describing the traffic
flow is
t + ( 2 )x = 0.
Consider

0,
(x, 0) = 1,

0,

x < 1
1 < x < 0
x>0

describing a build up of traffic stuck at a light at x = 0 that turns green at t = 0.

Find (x, t).

12. Why does sound travel at the speed of sound?

The molar mass of air is around 29 g/mol, and to a reasonable approximation, air obeys the
ideal gas law whereby P = CRT for an air pressure P , concentration C in moles per unit
volume for the air, the ideal gas constant R = 8.314 J mol1 K1 , and a temperature T in K.
Use this to show an approximate equation of state for air at 300 K is
P () = c2
where c2 86000 m2 /s2 .
Most ambient air is at atmospheric pressure of Patm 101 325 N/m2 with a density of 1.2
kg/m3 . The human ear is sensitive to pressure variations of approximately P 20 N/m2
from atmospheric pressure.
Use the compressible Euler equations for this next part. Consider a one-dimensional
model for a noise disturbance: at t = 0, the air is motionless. At x = 0 and time
t > 0, there is a pressure disturbance such that P (x = 0, t) = Patm + P f (t) for some
O(1) function f . Show that this disturbance propagates as a signal at roughly
speed c.
Note this c is a little off from a more accurate sound speed of 343 m/s. This isnt bad for
such a simple model.