Comparing the Fourier Integral for

Periodic and Aperiodic Signals

In this lesson, highlight the differences between the Fourier Integral for Periodic signals
(Fourier series) and Aperiodic Signals (Fourier transform).

Periodic Signal
Fourier series expansion is defined for a periodic signal. It is given as

() = 0
=

Where 0 is the period of the signal. The Fourier series coefficient is given as
=

1
() 0
0 0
The Fourier coefficients exist at discrete
points on the frequency spectrum (at integral
multiples of the frequency) as seen in the
diagram. The integration is over a single
period.
For the real signal shown with period 0 , the
magnitude spectrum | | is even-symmetric
and the angle = is odd-symmetric.
These 2 contribute
| | 0 , | | 0
to the signal.

So for a given , the contribution of , terms together is 2| |cos(0 + ), Since

the frequency spectrum exists only at discrete points = 0 , adding all these contributions
will give us the original signal.
The unit of is Volts, and its magnitude gives the amplitude of the frequency component.

Aperiodic Signal
Here, we deal with a Fourier transform (), which is given by

() = ()

This is akin to dropping the division by 0 in the periodic case, and letting 0 . The
reconstructed signal is given by
1
() =
()
2

The Fourier transform now occupies the entire

frequency spectrum, so the contribution of any single
frequency is very small. So instead, we consider the
coefficient density, the frequencies in a band of width
. For a very narrow band, the area in that frequency
band is approximately |()| .
The exponential representation of this component is
|()| () .
Since the signal is real, the magnitude spectrum is evensymmetric and the phase spectrum is odd-symmetric. So
the frequency band at contributes
|()| () .
So the total contribution of these 2 frequency bands is
2|()| cos( + ())

The negative and positive frequencies both contribute to the signal, and ensure it is real.
The unit of () is Volts per cycles-per-second, or Volt-seconds since it gives the
magnitude density. This is akin to pressure as force-per-unit-area.
In summary, the periodic signal have components at particular frequencies, whereas the
aperiodic signal occupies the entire frequency spectrum, and is better understood using the
coefficient density. The contribution due to any single frequency is vanishingly small, so we

instead look at the contribution of a narrow band lim0 () 2 .