LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

TERM PAPER
ENGINEERING MATHEMATICS II MTH-102
Topic: - Can a discontinuous function be developed in a Fourier series

D.O.S:- 13/05/2010

Submitted By: NILESH TRIPATHI Class- B.Tech (ECE) Sec. D6905 Roll no. A11 Reg. No.:-10906520

Submitted To: MRS.RAVINDER KAUR

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost I thank my teacher MRS. RAVINDER KAUR who has given me this Term Paper to bring out my creative capabilities. I am also thankful to him for their valuable suggestions on my term paper. I would like to acknowledge the assistance provided to me by the library staff of L.P.U. My heartfelt gratitude to my friends, for helping me morally to complete my work in time.
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CONTENT
1) Introduction............................................. .................................4

2) Periodic Functions....................................................... .............5

3) Definition of Fourier series.......................................................6

4) Discontinuous Function........................................................ ....6

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5) Can a discontinuous function be Fourier series? ......................8

6) Gibbs Phenomenon................................................. ...................8

7) Formula for finding Fourier series............................................9

8) Reference................................................ ...................................10

INTRODUCTION
In mathematics, a Fourier series decomposes a periodic function or periodic signal into a sum of simple oscillating functions, namely sines and cosines or complex exponentials. The study of Fourier series is a branch of Fourier analysis. Fourier series were introduced by Joseph Fourier (17681830) for the purpose of solving the heat equation in a metal plate. The heat equation is a partial differential equation. Prior to Fourier's work, there was no known solution to the heat equation in a general situation, although particular solutions were known if the heat source behaved in a simple way, in particular, if the heat source was a sine or cosine wave. These simple solutions are now sometimes called Eigen solutions. Fourier's idea was to model a complicated heat source as a superposition (or linear combination) of simple sine and cosine waves, and to write the solution as a superposition of the corresponding Eigen solutions. This superposition or linear combination is called the Fourier series.

Fig: 1 The first four Fourier series approximations for a square wave. Fourier series is named in honour of Joseph Fourier (1768-1830), who made important contributions to the study of trigonometric series, after preliminary investigations by Leonhard Euler, Jean le Rond d'Alembert, and Daniel Bernoulli.

The Fourier series has many applications in electrical engineering, vibration analysis, acoustics, optics, signal processing, image processing, quantum mechanics, econometrics, etc.

PERIODIC FUNCTIONS
If the value of each ordinate f(t) repeats itself at equal intervals in the abscissa, then f(t) is said to be a periodic function. If f(t) = f(t+T) = f(t+2T) = ... then T is called the period of the function f(t).

DEFINATION OF FOURIER SERIES

Here we will express a non-sinusoidal periodic function into a fundamental and its harmonics. A series of sines & cosines of an angle & its multiples of the form.

is called the Fourier series. where,

And

are called the Fourier coefficients of . A periodic function can be expanded in a Fourier series. The series consists of the following:

(i)
(ii) (iii)

A constant term a0 (called D.C. component in electrical work.) A component at the fundamental frequency determined by the values of a1, b1. Component of the harmonics determined by a 2, a3...b2,b3....are known as Fourier coefficients.

The Fourier series does not always converge, and even when it does converge for a specific value x0 of x, the sum of the series at x 0 may differ from the value (x0) of the function. It is one of the main questions in harmonic analysis to decide when Fourier series converge, and when the sum is equal to the original function. If a function is squareintegrals on the interval [, ], then the Fourier series converges to the function at almost every point. In engineering applications, the Fourier series is generally presumed to converge everywhere except at discontinuities, since the functions encountered in engineering are more well behaved than the ones that mathematicians can provide as counter-examples to this presumption. In particular, the Fourier series converges absolutely and uniformly to (x) whenever the derivative of (x) is square integral.

DISCONTINUOUS FUNCTION
1) This is probably the first discontinuous function we learned about. It's called a step function, and its domain is still the entire set of Real numbers. (The open circles mean that, for example, at x=2, the y-value is no longer 1, but 2).

Fig: 2 Step discontinuous function There are clearly gaps when the function jumps to each new value. You can't run your finger along the graph without lifting it to move to the next portion. This function is discontinuous. 2) The next example, at the right, is a Rational expression function where there is an undefined value of x. The value of x can never equal zero, since division by zero is not defined.

Fig: 3 As a result, there is an asymptote at x=0; the graph has a break there. On either side of this gap the graph approaches infinity. We can't run our finger along the graph without lifting it to move to the next portion. This function is discontinuous.

3) The graph on the left is one you may have come across before. It is very mysterious ... the graph all by itself looks like the simple linear function y=x+2. If you examine this function's actual equation, you will notice that it's a Rational expression. The xvalue of -3 is undefined. This means there must be a gap at -3, even though you can't see it!

Fig: 4 The values of x have corresponding points on the graph right up to -3 on either side, but there is no value for x=-3 itself. This one missing point can't be seen, so although there is a gap, it isn't visible! This function is discontinuous.

4) There are many types of discontinuous functions, all of which exhibit one common feature ... there is always a gap. At the right is a graph made from two different equations:

Fig: 5

Again notice that the domain is all Real numbers, but there is still a gap. This function is also discontinuous.

CAN A DISCONTINUOUS FUNCTION BE DEVELOPED IN A FOURIER SERIES

When comparing the square wave to its Fourier series representation it is not clear that the two are equal. The fact that the square wave's Fourier series requires

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more terms for a given representation accuracy is not important. Can a discontinuous function, like the square wave, be expressed as a sum, even an infinite one, of continuous ones? This issue brought Fourier much criticism from the French Academy of Science for several years after its presentation on 1807. It was not resolved for also a century, and its resolution is interesting and important to understand from a practical viewpoint. The extraneous peaks in the square wave's Fourier series never disappear; they are termed Gibb's phenomenon after the American physicist Josiah Willard Gibbs. They occur whenever the signal is discontinuous, and will always be present whenever the signal has jumps.

GIBBS PHENOMENON

In mathematics, the Gibbs phenomenon, named after the American physicist J. Willard Gibbs, is the peculiar manner in which the Fourier series of a piecewise continuously differentiable periodic function behaves at a jump discontinuity: the nth partial sum of the Fourier series has large oscillations near the jump, which might increase the maximum of the partial sum above that of the function itself. The overshoot does not die out as the frequency increases, but approaches a finite limit. For a discontinuous function f, converted to Fourier series, it should hold 3 conditions: 1) f must be periodic with period 2 2) f must be piecewise continuous 3) at each position x = q where f is discontinuous

f(q) =1/2 [lim xq- f(x) + lim xq+ f(x)]

Suppose we want to construct a Fourier series which converges to the function s(x) = {1 if |x| < /2 {0 if |x| = /2 on x [2 , 2 ]. To do this, we define a new function S which agrees with s on ss domain, and satisfies conditions (1), (2), and (3) above, S(x) = {+1 if |x| < /2 {0 if |x| = /2 {-1 if /2 < |x| Extended periodically with period 2.

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 Informally, it reflects the difficulty inherent in approximating a discontinuous function by a finite series of continuous sine and cosine waves. It is important to put emphasis on the word finite because even though every partial sum of the Fourier series overshoots the function it is approximating, the limit of the partial sums does not exhibit the same overshoot. It is impossible for a discontinuous function to have absolutely convergent Fourier coefficients, since the function would thus be the uniform limit of continuous functions and therefore be continuous, a contradiction.

FORMULA FOR FINDING FOURIER SERIES

At a point of discontinuity, Fourier series gives the value of f(x) as the arithmetic mean of left and right limits. At the point of discontinuity, x=c At x=c,

f(x) = [ f(c-0) + f(c+0) ]

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REFERENCE
Advanced Engineering Mathematics by H.K.Dass http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourier_series http://www.worsleyschool.net/science/files/discontinuous/functions.html http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/ApproximationOfDiscontinuousFunctionsByFourierS eri es/ http://cnx.org/content/m0041/latest/

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