Hyperbolic partial differential equationIn mathematics, a hyperbolic partial differential equation of order is a partial differential equation (PDE) that, roughly speaking, has a well-posed initial value problem for the first derivatives. More precisely, the Cauchy problem can be locally solved for arbitrary initial data along any non-characteristic hypersurface. Many of the equations of mechanics are hyperbolic, and so the study of hyperbolic equations is of substantial contemporary interest. The model hyperbolic equation is the wave equation.
