Fourier series are used in the analysis of periodic functions.

A Fourier series is an expansion of a periodic function in terms of an infinite sum of sines and cosines. Fourier series make use of the orthogonality relationships of the sine and cosine functions. The computation and study of Fourier series is known as harmonic analysis. The attempt to understand functions (or other objects) by breaking them into basic pieces that are easier to understand is one of the central themes in Fourier analysis. In the sciences and engineering the process of decomposing a function into simpler pieces is often called an analysis. The corresponding operation of rebuilding the function from these pieces is known as synthesis. Harmonics If a signal is periodic with frequency f, the only frequencies composing the signal are integer multiples of f, i.e., f, 2f, 3f, 4f, etc. These frequencies are called harmonics. The first harmonic is f, the second harmonic is 2f, the third harmonic is 3f, and so forth. The first harmonic (i.e., f) is also given a special name, the fundamental frequency. Fourier originally defined the Fourier series for real-valued functions of real arguments, and using the sine and cosine functions as the basis set for the decomposition.