Editing Wave equation (section)

{{Short description|Differential equation important in physics}}
{{distinguish|Wave function}}
{{Use American English|date = February 2019}}

{{multiple image
 | direction = vertical
 | width = 250
 | image1 = Wave equation 1D fixed endpoints.gif
 | caption1 = A [[pulse (physics)|pulse]] traveling through a string with fixed endpoints as modeled by the wave equation
 | image2 = Spherical wave2.gif
 | caption2 = Spherical waves coming from a point source
 | image3 = 2D Wave Function resize.gif
 | caption3 = A solution to the 2D wave equation
 }}
The '''wave equation''' is a second-order linear [[partial differential equation]] for the description of [[wave]]s or [[standing wave]] fields such as [[mechanical waves]] (e.g. [[water]] waves, [[sound waves]] and [[seismic waves]]) or [[Electromagnetic radiation|electromagnetic waves]] (including [[light]] waves). It arises in fields like [[acoustics]], [[electromagnetism]], and [[fluid dynamics]]. 

This article focuses on waves in [[classical physics]]. Quantum physics uses an operator-based [[Schrodinger equation|wave equation]] often as a [[relativistic wave equation]].