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    Fourier 02

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    balfas
    The document discusses Fourier series representations of square waves and repeated parabolas. It shows how Fourier series can represent discontinuous and symmetric functions. It also illustrates how evaluating Fourier series at specific points can reveal useful summation formulas.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Fourier 02

    Uploaded by

    balfas
    6 views3 pages
    The document discusses Fourier series representations of square waves and repeated parabolas. It shows how Fourier series can represent discontinuous and symmetric functions. It also illustrates how evaluating Fourier series at specific points can reveal useful summation formulas.

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    fourier 02

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    The document discusses Fourier series representations of square waves and repeated parabolas. It shows how Fourier series can represent discontinuous and symmetric functions. It also illustrates how evaluating Fourier series at specific points can reveal useful summation formulas.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    6 views3 pages

    Fourier 02

    Uploaded by

    balfas
    The document discusses Fourier series representations of square waves and repeated parabolas. It shows how Fourier series can represent discontinuous and symmetric functions. It also illustrates how evaluating Fourier series at specific points can reveal useful summation formulas.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    • At the discontinuities of f (x), the Fourier series converges to the mean of the two

    values of f (x) on either side of the discontinuity.


    • A picture of first few terms of the series demonstrates the nature of the convergence
    to the square wave; each successive term in the series attempts to correct for the
    “overshoot” present in the sum of all the previous terms

    one term

    two terms

    three terms

    ten terms

    • The amplitude spectrum decays as 1/n; this indicates that a square wave can be
    well-represented by the fundamental frequency plus the first few harmonics.

    • By examining the series for particular values of x, useful summation formulae may
    sometimes be found. For example, setting x = L/2 in the Fourier sine series gives

     
    4h π 1 3π 1 5π
    f (x = L/2) = h = sin + sin + sin +···
    π 2 3 2 5 2

    and this leads to a nice (but slowly converging) series representation for π/4:

    π
    = (1 − 1/3 + 1/5 − 1/7 + 1/9 · · ·).
    4

    Alternatively we may represent the square wave as an even function.

    3
    f(x)

    h
    x
    -2L -L 0 L 2L 3L

    Now f (x) = +f (−x). By symmetry, then, bn = 0 ∀n, and only the an ’s are non-zero.
    For these coefficients we find

    1 L nπx 2 L nπx
    Z Z
    an = f (x) cos = f (x) cos
    L −L L L 0 L
    "Z #
    L/2 Z L
    2h nπx nπx
    = cos dx − cos dx
    L 0 L L/2 L
    "Z #
    nπ/2 Z nπ
    2h
    = cos t dt − cos t dt
    nπ 0 nπ/2

    2h h nπ/2
    i
    = sin t |0 − sin t |nπ
    nπ/2
    nπ
    
    4h (n−1)/2
    = nπ (−1) n odd .
    0 n even

    Hence f (x) can be also represented as the Fourier cosine series


     
    4h πx 1 3πx 1 5πx
    f (x) = cos − cos + cos ··· . (8)
    π L 3 L 5 L

    This example illustrates the use of symmetry in determining a Fourier series,


    even function −→ cosine series
    odd function −→ sine series
    no symmetry −→ both sine and cosine series

    Thus it is always simpler to choose an origin so that f (x) has a definite symmetry, so that
    it can be represented by either a sin or cosine series

    2. Repeated Parabola
    This is the periodic extension of the function x2 , in the range [−π, π], to the entire real line.
    Given any function defined on the interval [a, b], the periodic extension may be constructed
    in a similar fashion. In general, we can Fourier expand any function on a finite range; the
    Fourier series will converge to the periodic extension of the function.

    4
    −3π −π π 3π

    The Fourier expansion of the repeated parabola gives

    bn = 0 ∀n
    π
    1 2π 2
    Z
    a0 = x2 dx =
    π −π 3
    Z π
    2 4
    an = x2 cos nx dx = (−1)n 2
    π 0 n

    Thus we can represent the repeated parabola as a Fourier cosine series


    ∞
    π22
    X (−1)n
    f (x) = x = +4 2
    cos nx. (9)
    3 n=1
    n

    Notice several interesting facts:


    • The a0 term represents the average value of the function. For this example, this
    average is non-zero.

    • Since f is even, the Fourier series has only cosine terms.


    • There are no discontinuities in f , but first derivative is discontinuous; this implies that
    the amplitude spectrum decays as 1/n2 . In general, the “smoother” the function,
    the faster the decay of the amplitude spectrum as a function of n. Consequently,
    progressively fewer terms in the Fourier series are needed to represent the waveform
    to a fixed degree of accuracy.
    • Setting x = π in the series gives
    ∞
    2 π2 X (−1)n
    π = +4 cos nπ
    3 n=1
    n2

    from which we find


    ∞
    π2 X 1
    =
    6 n=1
    n2
    This provides an indirect, but simple, way to sum inverse powers of the integers. One
    simply Fourier expands the Pfunction xk on the interval [−π, π] and then
    P∞ evaluates the
    ∞ −k −z
    series at x = π from which n=1 n can be computed. The sum n=1 n ≡ ζ(z),
    is called the Riemann zeta function, and by this Fourier series trick the zeta function
    can be evaluated for all positive integer values of z.

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