Math 225-04

Amplitude Phase-Form Summary

Amplitude-Phase Form
When the characteristic equation for the second order linear ODE with constant coecients ay + by + cy = 0 has complex conjugate roots r1 = + i we have the general solution y(t) = c1 et cos t + c2 et sin t. Solutions in this form can be somewhat dicult to plot quickly by hand. To remedy this, we shall use the amplitude-phase form of the above solution. and r2 = i

Using Eulers Formula to Remember the Addition Formulas

In order to derive the amplitude-phase form, we will need the addition formula for cosine. It turns out that Eulers Formula is a handy way to remember the addition formulas for both sine and cosine: ei(1 +2 ) = ei1 ei2 cos (1 + 2 ) + i sin (1 + 2 ) = (cos 1 + i sin 1 )(cos 2 + i sin 2 ) cos (1 + 2 ) + i sin (1 + 2 ) = (cos 1 cos 2 sin 1 sin 2 ) + i(cos 1 sin 2 + cos 2 sin 1 ) If we equate the real and imaginary parts in the last equation above, then we get the two summation formulas: cos (1 + 2 ) = cos 1 cos 2 sin 1 sin 2 , sin (1 + 2 ) = cos 1 sin 2 + cos 2 sin 1 . Recall that from these you can quickly derive the half- and double-angle formulas.

The Derivation of the Amplitude-Phase Form

If we take the general solution from above y(t) = c1 et cos t + c2 et sin t, then we can rewrite it in amplitude-phase form y(t) = Aet cos (t ),

2 where A is a constant involving the amplitude and is the phase shift. To see how these are equivalent, use the summation formula for cosine on the amplitudephase form: Aet cos (t ) = Aet (cos (t) cos () sin (t) sin ()) = Aet (cos (t) cos + sin (t) sin ) = (A cos )et cos t + (A sin )et sin t Thus, if we take c1 = A cos and c2 = A sin , then we get back to our original form of the solution. Typically, we need to go from the parameters c1 and c2 to the parameters A and . To do this, note that c1 = A cos and c2 = A sin imply together that c2 + c2 = (A cos )2 + (A sin )2 = A2 (cos2 + sin2 ) = A2 1 2 so A= can be derived from the fact that c2 A sin = = tan c1 A cos where we must take in the proper quadrant by considering the relative signs of c 1 and c2 . Alternately, you can simply start with the amplitude-phase form of the general solution, and use the two initial conditions to solve for A and directly instead of c1 and c2 . Finally, note that the amplitude-phase form is much easier to plot, since it is a just a phase-shifted cosine with angular frequency , and whose amplitude is sandwiched between the exponential functions Aet . c2 + c2 . 1 2