> All of this has pretty much inevitably ended with... the wave equation.

Hehe, I so knew that was coming.

> So apparently the wave equation tells us that the 2nd derivative of some 
> physical quanitity "u" with respect to time is equal to the square of the 
> wave propogation constant multiplied by the Laplacian of "u".
>
> ...which would probably mean something if I could figure out what a 
> Laplacian is! :-S
>
> According to Wikipedia, the Laplacian of u is the sum of all partial 2nd 
> derivatives of u with respect to every coordinate axis.
>
> ...so...the total curvature then? ._.

Pretty much yeh - the wave equation basically says that the 2nd differential 
in time is proportional to the 2nd differential in space.  Obviously the 2nd 
differential in "space" depends on how many dimensions you are working in, 
but you more or less just sum up the 2nd differential in each dimension.

Thinking of writing a simulator? ;-)

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