Hey, we just began to learn about the Fourier transform. I have a few questions which nobody ever addresses it seems.
First you have to understand I'm not a person who thinks in terms of math. What I do is understand the concept and then I use the math as a tool to find a solution to the problem.
So having said that, I understand the Fourier series conceptually. It means that any periodic signal is composed of a sum of an infinite number of sinusoids of frequencies which are multiple integers of the original periodic signal.
Taking speech as an example. A speech signal itself is not periodic, but its composed of a sum of periodic signals, each of which in turn has a Fourier series.
Now the Fourier transform says that a NON-periodic signal can be transformed to the frequency domain. First of all, how the heck does that make sense? If a signal is not periodic where does the frequency come from?
If say we took f(t) = t^2. This is just a parabola. If we took the F transform of this, what frequency are you talking about? Where?
It makes sense to me mathematically, and yea the calculus works and all that. But if the fourier transform is used so much to deal with real signals in circuits, it has to mean something in real life, not just mathematically.
Can someone enlighten me on this? Thank you.
First you have to understand I'm not a person who thinks in terms of math. What I do is understand the concept and then I use the math as a tool to find a solution to the problem.
So having said that, I understand the Fourier series conceptually. It means that any periodic signal is composed of a sum of an infinite number of sinusoids of frequencies which are multiple integers of the original periodic signal.
Taking speech as an example. A speech signal itself is not periodic, but its composed of a sum of periodic signals, each of which in turn has a Fourier series.
Now the Fourier transform says that a NON-periodic signal can be transformed to the frequency domain. First of all, how the heck does that make sense? If a signal is not periodic where does the frequency come from?
If say we took f(t) = t^2. This is just a parabola. If we took the F transform of this, what frequency are you talking about? Where?
It makes sense to me mathematically, and yea the calculus works and all that. But if the fourier transform is used so much to deal with real signals in circuits, it has to mean something in real life, not just mathematically.
Can someone enlighten me on this? Thank you.