Fourier Series

What Does Fourier Series Mean?

A Fourier series is a representation of a wave form or other periodic function as a sum of sines and cosines. It is named after the French mathematician and physicist Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier (1768–1830). Since sound waves are made up of sine waves, Fourier transforms are widely used in signal processing.

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Techopedia Explains Fourier Series

A Fourier series is a way to represent complex waves, such as sound, as a series of simple sine waves. The series breaks down a wave into a sum of sines and cosines. This means that elements of a wave can be isolated from each other. The field of Fourier analysis is the study of various Fourier series. The practice of isolating a signal into individual frequencies is known as a Fourier transform.

While it is possible to calculate a Fourier series manually, computers can more easily analyze the complex harmonics of everyday sounds. Fourier analysis is widely used in audio processing, such as picking out individual sounds from a recording.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…