THE FOURIER SERIES AND

FOURIER TRANSFORM
Signals Spectra, and Signal Processing

Topics Outline:

The
Fourier
series
provides
spectral
representations for periodic continuous-time
signals. The Fourier transform is derived by
applying a limiting process to the Fourier series.

Most of the signals occurring in nature are

essentially continuous in time, and it is,
therefore, reasonable to expect the spectrums
of discrete-time signals to be closely related to
those of the continuous-time signals from which
they are derived.

1. Fourier Series

The frequency spectrum of a signal is an

alternative to the its time-domain
representation.

A periodic signal that comprises a weighted

sum of sinusoids can be represented
completely in the frequency domain in terms
of the amplitudes and phase angles of its
individual sinusoidal components.

Through the use of the Fourier series, the

concept of frequency spectrum can be
applied to arbitrary periodic signals.

Periodic signals are typically represented in

terms of nonperiodic signals.

To avoid possible confusion between the two

types of signals we will use the notation x(t )
for a periodic signal and simply x(t ) for a
nonperiodic one.

Signals will be assumed to be real unless

otherwise stated.