18/08/2015

ContinuousTimeFourierTransform

Next:PropertiesofFourierTransformUp:handout3Previous:handout3

ContinuousTimeFourierTransform
TheFourierexpansioncoefficient

inOWN)ofaperiodicsignal

is

andtheFourierexpansionofthesignalis:

whichcanalsobewrittenas:

where

isdefinedas

Whentheperiodof
periodicsignal

approachesinfinity

,theperiodicsignal

becomesanon

andthefollowingwillresult:

Intervalbetweentwoneighboringfrequencycomponentsbecomeszero:

Discretefrequencybecomescontinuousfrequency:

SummationoftheFourierexpansioninequation(a)becomesanintegral:
http://fourier.eng.hmc.edu/e101/lectures/handout3/node1.html

1/6

18/08/2015

ContinuousTimeFourierTransform

thesecondequalsignisduetothegeneralfact:

Timeintegralover

inequation(b)becomesovertheentiretimeaxis:

Insummary,whenthesignalisnonperiodic

,theFourierexpansion

becomesFouriertransform.Theforwardtransform(analysis)is:

andtheinversetransform(synthesis)is:

Notethat

isdenotedby

inOWN.

ComparingFouriercoefficientofaperiodicsignal
periodicsignal

withwithFourierspectrumofanon

weseethatthedimensionof

isdifferentfromthatof

http://fourier.eng.hmc.edu/e101/lectures/handout3/node1.html

2/6

18/08/2015

If

ContinuousTimeFourierTransform

representstheenergycontainedinthekthfrequencycomponentofaperiodicsignal
,then

representstheenergydensityofanonperiodicsignal

distributedalong

thefrequencyaxis.Wecanonlyspeakoftheenergycontainedinaparticularfrequencyband
:

Noteonnotations:
Thespectrumofatimesignalcanbedenotedby

or

toemphasizethefactthatthe

spectrumrepresentshowtheenergycontainedinthesignalisdistributedasafunctionoffrequency
or .Moreover,if
isused,thefactor
infrontoftheinversetransformisdropped
sothatthetransformpairtakesamoresymmetricform.Ontheotherhand,asFouriertransformcan
beconsideredasaspecialcaseofLaplacetransformwhentherealpart ofthecomplexargument
iszero:

itisalsonaturaltodenotethespectrumof

by

(inOWN).

Example0:
Considertheunitimpulsefunction:

Example1:
Ifthespectrumofasignal

isadeltafunctioninfrequencydomain

,the

signalcanbefoundtobe:

http://fourier.eng.hmc.edu/e101/lectures/handout3/node1.html

3/6

18/08/2015

ContinuousTimeFourierTransform

i.e.,

Example2:

Thespectrumis

Thisisthesincfunctionwithaparameter ,asshowninthefigure.

Notethattheheightofthemainpeakis

When approachesinfinity,

http://fourier.eng.hmc.edu/e101/lectures/handout3/node1.html

anditgetstallerandnarroweras getslarger.Alsonote

forall ,andthespectrumbecomes

4/6

18/08/2015

ContinuousTimeFourierTransform

RecallthattheFouriercoefficientof

is

whichrepresentstheenergycontainedinthesignalat
(DCcomponentatzerofrequency),and
thespectrum
istheenergydensityordistributionwhichisinfinityatzero
frequency.
Theintegralintheabovetransformisanimportantformulatobeusedfrequentlylater:

whichcanalsobewrittenas

Switching and

intheequationabove,wealsohave

representingasuperpositionofaninfinitenumberofcosinefunctionsofallfrequencies,whichcancel
eachotheranywherealongthetimeaxisexceptat
wheretheyadduptoinfinity,animpulse.
Example3:

Thespectrumofthecosinefunctionis

Thespectrumofthesinefunction
http://fourier.eng.hmc.edu/e101/lectures/handout3/node1.html

5/6

18/08/2015

ContinuousTimeFourierTransform

canbesimilarlyobtainedtobe

Again,thesespectrarepresenttheenergydensitydistributionofthesinusoids,whilethe
correspondingFouriercoefficients

and

representtheenergycontainedatfrequency

Next:PropertiesofFourierTransformUp:handout3Previous:handout3
RuyeWang20090705

http://fourier.eng.hmc.edu/e101/lectures/handout3/node1.html

6/6