Fourier theory made easy (?

)
 A sine wave
8

5*sin (24t)
6

4
Amplitude = 5

2 Frequency = 4 Hz
0

-2

-4

-6

-8
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

seconds
 A sine wave signal
8

5*sin(24t)
6

Amplitude = 5
4

2 Frequency = 4 Hz

0 Sampling rate = 256

samples/second
-2

Sampling duration =
-4
1 second
-6

-8
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

seconds
An undersampled signal
sin(28t), SR = 8.5 Hz
2

1.5

0.5

-0.5

-1

-1.5

-2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
 The Nyquist Frequency
• The Nyquist frequency is equal to one-half
of the sampling frequency.
• The Nyquist frequency is the highest
frequency that can be measured in a signal.
 Fourier series
• Periodic functions and signals may be
expanded into a series of sine and cosine
functions

http://www.falstad.com/fourier/j2/
 The Fourier Transform
• A transform takes one function (or signal)
and turns it into another function (or signal)
 The Fourier Transform
• A transform takes one function (or signal)
and turns it into another function (or signal)
• Continuous Fourier Transform:

close your eyes if you

don’t like integrals
 The Fourier Transform
• A transform takes one function (or signal)
and turns it into another function (or signal)
• Continuous Fourier Transform:

H  f    h  t  e 2ift dt


h  t    H  f  e 2ift df

 The Fourier Transform
• A transform takes one function (or signal)
and turns it into another function (or signal)
• The Discrete Fourier Transform:
N 1
H n   hk e 2ikn N
k 0

1 N 1
hk   H n e 2ikn N
N n 0
 Fast Fourier Transform
• The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is a very
efficient algorithm for performing a discrete
Fourier transform
• FFT principle first used by Gauss in 18??
• FFT algorithm published by Cooley & Tukey in
1965
• In 1969, the 2048 point analysis of a seismic trace
took 13 ½ hours. Using the FFT, the same task on
the same machine took 2.4 seconds!
 Famous Fourier Transforms
2

0 Sine wave
-1

-2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

300

250

200

150 Delta function

100

50

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
 Famous Fourier Transforms
0.5

0.4

Gaussian
0.3

0.2

0.1

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

3 Gaussian
2

0
0 50 100 150 200 250
 Famous Fourier Transforms
1.5

0.5 Sinc function

0

-0.5
-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

3 Square wave
2

0
-100 -50 0 50 100
 Famous Fourier Transforms
1.5

0.5 Sinc function

0

-0.5
-1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1

3 Square wave
2

0
-100 -50 0 50 100
 Famous Fourier Transforms
1

0.8

Exponential
0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

30

25

20

15 Lorentzian
10

0
0 50 100 150 200 250
 FFT of FID
2

f = 8 Hz
-1 SR = 256 Hz
T2 = 0.5 s

-2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120

 t 
   
F t  sin 2ft exp 
T 2
 FFT of FID
2

f = 8 Hz
1
SR = 256 Hz
T2 = 0.1 s

-1

-2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

14

12

10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
 FFT of FID
2

-1 f = 8 Hz
SR = 256 Hz
T2 = 2 s
-2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

200

150

100

50

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Effect of changing sample rate
2

-1 f = 8 Hz
T2 = 0.5 s

-2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

70 35

60 30

50 25

40 20

30 15

20 10

10 5

0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Effect of changing sample rate
2
SR = 256 Hz
SR = 128 Hz
1

-1 f = 8 Hz
T2 = 0.5 s

-2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

70 35

60 30

50 25

40 20

30 15

20 10

10 5

0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
 Effect of changing sample rate
• Lowering the sample rate:
– Reduces the Nyquist frequency, which
– Reduces the maximum measurable frequency
– Does not affect the frequency resolution
Effect of changing sampling duration
2

-1
f = 8 Hz
T2 = .5 s
-2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Effect of changing sampling duration
2

1 ST = 2.0 s
ST = 1.0 s

-1
f = 8 Hz
T2 = .5 s
-2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
 Effect of changing sampling duration

• Reducing the sampling duration:

– Lowers the frequency resolution
– Does not affect the range of frequencies you
can measure
Effect of changing sampling duration
2

-1

-2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

200

150

100

50 f = 8 Hz
T2 = 2.0 s

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Effect of changing sampling duration
2
ST = 2.0 s
ST = 1.0 s
1

-1 f = 8 Hz
T2 = 0.1 s

-2
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

14

12

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Measuring multiple frequencies
3
f1 = 80 Hz, T21 = 1 s
2
f2 = 90 Hz, T22 = .5 s
1 f3 = 100 Hz, T23 = 0.25 s

-1

-2 SR = 256 Hz

-3
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

120

100

80

60

40

20

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Measuring multiple frequencies
3
f1 = 80 Hz, T21 = 1 s
2
f2 = 90 Hz, T22 = .5 s
1 f3 = 200 Hz, T23 = 0.25 s

-1

-2 SR = 256 Hz

-3
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2

120

100

80

60

40

20

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
 Some useful links
• http://www.falstad.com/fourier/
– Fourier series java applet
• http://www.jhu.edu/~signals/
– Collection of demonstrations about digital signal processing
• http://www.ni.com/events/tutorials/campus.htm
– FFT tutorial from National Instruments
• http://www.cf.ac.uk/psych/CullingJ/dictionary.html
– Dictionary of DSP terms
• http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/JCEWWW/Features/McadInChem/mcad008/FT
4FreeIndDecay.pdf
– Mathcad tutorial for exploring Fourier transforms of free-induction decay
• http://lcni.uoregon.edu/fft/fft.ppt
– This presentation