16

Fourier series

16.1 Introduction

Fourier analysis is the theory behind frequency analysis of signals. This chapter is concerned with the Fourier analysis of periodic, piecewise continuous functions. A periodic function can be represented by a Fourier series. A non-periodic function can be represented by its Fourier transform which we shall not be concerned with here. Discrete functions may be represented by a discrete Fourier transform, which also we shall not look at in this book.

Any periodic signal is made up of the sum of single frequency components. These components consist of a fundamental frequency component, multiples of the fundamental frequency, called the harmonics and a bias term, which represents the average off-set from zero. There ...

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