Fourier Series Example

Determine the Euler coefficients of the Fourier series of the function f(x)=x for - x : 1 1 a0 = - f(x)dx= 2 - xdx=0 2 1 1 an f(x)cos(nx)dx= xcos(nx) dx

1 x [ 2 cos( nx ) sin( nx )] 0 n n 1 1 bn f(x)sin(nx)dx= xsin(nx) dx

1 x 2 2 [ 2 sin(nx ) cos( nx )] cos( n ) ( 1) n 1 n n n n

2 f ( x ) ( 1) n 1 sin( nx ) n 1 n 2 1 2sin( x ) sin(2 x ) sin(3 x ) sin(4 x ) 3 2

3.6 62 4

Five terms
2 f3 ( x) f5 ( x) f10 0( x) f ( x) 0

100 terms

Real function Three terms

3.6 62

3 3.1 4

0 x

3 3.1 4

Gibbs Phenomenon
The partial sum of a Fourier series shows oscillations near a discontinuity point as shown from the previous example. These oscillations do not flatten out even when the total number of terms used is very large. As an example, the real function f(x)=x has a value of 3.14 when x=3.14. On the other hand, the partial sum solution using 100 terms has a value of 0.318 when x=3.14. It is drastically different from the real value. In general, these oscillations worsen when the number of terms used decrease. In the previous example, the value of the five terms solution is only 0.016 when x=3.14. Therefore, extreme attention has to be paid when using the Fourier analysis on discontinuous function.