1

CLASS 2
(Sections 1.3)

Exponential and Sinusoidal Signals

They arise frequently in applications, and many other signals can be constructed from them.

Continuous-time complex exponential and sinusoidal signals:

() =
where and are in general complex numbers.
Real exponential signals: and are reals.

at

C>0 and a<0.

Ce

Ce

at

C>0 and a>0.

C
0
t

C
0
t

The case > 0 represents exponential growth. Some signals in unstable systems exhibit exponential
growth.

The case < 0 represents exponential decay. Some signals in stable systems exhibit exponential
decay.

Periodic complex exponential:

0
where =

1, 0 = 0 is real, and is the time.

Eulers formula: 0 = cos(0 ) + sin(0 ) . Note that

| {z }
| {z }
Re{0 }

Im{0 }

1
jw t

sin(w t)

Im

cos(w0t)

1
1

0 = 1 and 0 = 0 .

2 = 1, for = 0, 1, 2, . . . .

0
Re

Since
(
)
2
0 +

2 0

= 0

0
0)
= 0 |2sign(
{z } =
=1

we have
0 is periodic with fundamental period

2
.
0

Note that

0 and 0 have the same fundamental period.

Energy in 0 :

Average Power in 0 : lim

{0 }=0,1,... , are all periodic with period

0 =

1
2

1. =

0 = lim
2
.
0

1
2

1. = 1.

They are called a harmonically related set of

complex exponentials with 0 being the th harmonic.

Sinusoidal signals:
cos(0 + )

and

sin(0 + ).

where is real, 0 is real, is real, and is the time. (Graph one of the signals!)

They arise in systems that conserve energy such as an ideal LC circuit or an ideal mass-spring system.
Periodic with the same fundamental period 0 = 2/0
0 is the fundamental frequency
0 := 1/0 = 0 /(2) is the number of cycles per unit time (large 0 means more oscillatory)
is the amplitude
is the size of the phase shift.

Since
(0 +) = cos(0 + ) + sin(0 + )
we can write
cos(0 + ) = Re((0 +) )
sin(0 + ) = Im((0 +) ).

Recall, for any complex number ,

= Re() + Im()

= Re() Im()

therefore
Re() =

+
2

Im() =

.
2

Hence, we can also write

)
( (0 +) ( (0 +) ) ) ( (0 +)

+
=

+ (0 +)
2
2

= 0 + 0
2
2
(
)
(0 +) ( (0 +) ) ) /2 ( (0 +)
sin(0 + ) =

(0 +)
2
2

= (/2) 0 (+/2) 0 .
2
2

cos(0 + ) =

General complex exponential signals:

where and are complex numbers.

If
=

and

= + 0

then
= (+0 ) = (0 +) = cos(0 + ) + sin(0 + ) .
|
{z
}
|
{z
}
Re( )

Im( )

r>0.

r<0.
|C|ert

at

Re(Ce )

at

Re(Ce )

|C|ert

|C|ert
0

|C|e
0

rt

If = 0, the real and imaginary part are sinusoidals.

If > 0, the real and imaginary part are sinusoidals multiplied by a growing exponential.
Such signals arise in unstable systems.

If < 0, the real and imaginary part are sinusoidals multiplied by a decaying exponential.
Such signals arise in stable systems, for example, in RLC circuits, or in mass-spring-friction system,
where the energy is dissipated due to the resistors, friction, etc.

Discrete-time complex exponential and sinusoidal signals:

[] =
where and are complex numbers.
Analogous to the continuous-time case with the following differences: (0 is real below)

0 = 1 are different signals if 0 = 1 , whereas

0 = 1

if

0 1 = 2, for some {0, 1, . . . }.

(Explain this on the unit circle!)

Therefore, it is sufficient to consider only the case 0 [0, 2) or 0 [, ).

As 0 increases 0 oscillates at higher frequencies, whereas this is not the case for 0 .
In the figure below, the frequency of oscillations increases as 0 changes from 0 to then it decreases
as 0 changes from to 2.

0 is periodic with fundamental period 2/0 , whereas

0 is periodic

0 = 0 (+ ) for some integer > 0, for all

0 = 1 for some integer > 0
0 = 2 for some integers , > 0

If

0
2

is =

0
is rational.
2

for some integers and which have no common factors, then the fundamental period

2
0

because
0 (+ ) = 0

The same observations hold for discrete-time sinusoids.

w =1/8

w =0/8

n=4
n=5
n=3
n=6
n=2
n=7
n=1
n=8
n=0
n=9
n=15
n=10 n=14
n=11
n=13
n=12

n=3
Im

n=0

Im

Im

w =2/8

n=4
n=6

n=7

Re

Re

w =4/8

w =8/8

w =12/8

n=2

n=0

n=1

n=0

Im

n=3
Im

Im

n=0

n=5

n=1

n=3

n=2

n=0
n=1

Re

Re

w0=14/8

w0=15/8

w0=16/8

n=4

n=7
n=0

n=3

n=2

Re

n=1

Im

n=6

n=12
n=11
n=13
n=10 n=14
n=9
n=15
n=8
n=0
n=7
n=1
n=6
n=2
n=5
n=3
n=4

Im

Re

n=5
Im

n=1

Re
0

Fig. 1.

n=2

Re

To determine the fundamental period, count the number of steps to get back to 1!

n=0

Re

Examples:
1) Is [] = 2/3 + 3/4 periodic? If it is periodic, whats its fundamental period?
For 2/3 , 0 /(2) = 1/3, so 2/3 is periodic with fundamental period 3.
For 3/4 , 0 /(2) = 3/8, so 3/4 is periodic with fundamental period 8.
[] is periodic with fundamental period 24 = (3, 8).
2) Is [] = sin(3/4) periodic? If it is periodic, whats its fundamental period?
Since

0
2

3
8

is irrational, [] is not periodic; see the figure where [] = 0 only at = 0.

sin(3t/4) and sin(3n/4)

1

1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
t

3) Is [] = sin(8/31) periodic? If it is periodic, whats its fundamental period?

Since 0 /(2) = 4/31, [] is periodic with fundamental period 31; see the figure where [0] =
[31] = 0. Note that the continuous-time signal sin(8/31) has fundamental period 31/4, hence it
is 0 at = 31/4. But [] has no 31/4th sample and it misses 0 between [7] and [8].

sin(8 t/31) and sin(8 n/31)

1

1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435
t

Harmonically related discrete-time periodic exponentials:

[] = {(2/ ) }=0,1,... , are all periodic with period .
However, unlike the continuous-time signals, these signals are not all distinct because
+ [] = (+ )(2/ ) = (2/ ) 2 = [].
This implies that there are only distinct signals in this set, for example,
0 [] = 1
1 [] = 2/
2 [] = 4/
..
.
1 [] = 2( 1)/ .