Periodie Complex Exporential and Sinusoidal Signats
A second important class of compiex exponenials is obta1ned by constraíning a to be
purely imaginary. Specificaly, consider
x) = glagt 1.21)
An important property of this signal is that it is periodic. To verify this, we recall fom
eq. (1.11) that x() will be periodic with period Tif
(1.22)
Or, since
it follows that for peiodicity, we mmst have
pueT 1. (I.23)
If wp = 0. then x() = 1, which is periodic for any value of T. If wo 0, then the fun
damental period To of x -hat is, the smaliest positive value of Tfor which eq. (1.23)
holds-is
2T
(L.24)
Thus, the signals e and e l have the same fundamental period.
Asignal closely related to the periodic complex exponential is che sinusoidal sugnal
x2) = A cos(wgt + ). (1.25)
as illustrated in Figure 1.20. With seconds as the units of r, the units cf ¢ and w0 are radians
and radians per second, respectively. It is also common to write w 2r fo, where f has
the units of cycdes per second, or hertz (H2). Like the conmplex exponential sgnal, the si
nUsoidal signal is penodic witb fundamental period To given by eg.(1.24). Sinusoidal and
x(t) Acos (wot + )
Acos 7
Figure 1.20 Cont1nuous-t1me sinu
sodal siçna.
Sec 1.3 Exponential and Sinusoidal Signals 17
complex exponcntial signals are also used to describe the characteristics of many physical
processes-in particular, pbysical systems in which energy is conservcd. For exanple, as
shown in Problen 2.61, the natural response of an LC circuit is sinusoidal, as is the simple
hamonic motion of a mechanical system consisting of a mass connected by a spring to a
stationary support. The acoustic pressUure variations coresponding to a singie musical tone
are also sinusoidal.
By using Euler's relation,? the complex exponential in eg. (1.21) can be wrtten in
terms of sinusoidal signals with the same fundamental period:
ejw cos og + sin wof. (.26)
Similarly, the sinusoidal signal of eq. (1.25) can be wntten in terrns of periodc cormplex
exponentials, agai with the same fundamental period:
Acostog! +d) = e + e e (1.27)
Notc that the two exponentials 1n eq. (1.27) have complex amplitudes. Alternaively, we
can express a sinusord in terms of a complex exponential signal as
Acos(wgt + ¢) = ARefetv r, (1.28)
where, if c is a complex number, Relc} denotes its real part. We will also use the nocation
Sntct for the imag1nary part of e, so ihat, for example,
Asio(wa! + ) = ASn{eta}. (1.29)
From eq. (1.24), we see that the fundamenal period To of a continuous-tine sinu
soxlal signal or a peiodic complex exponential is inversely proportional to lwol. which
we will refer to as the fundamenalfrequency. From Figure i.~t, we see graphically what
this means. (f we decrcase the magnitude of wa, we slow dowa the rale of oscillation and
therefore increase the peiod. Exactly the opposite effects occur if we increase the mag
nitude of w. Consider now the case wo = 0. In this case, as we mentioned earlier, x()
is constant and therefore is pernodic with period T for any positive value of T. Thus, the
AMA (b)
Figure 1,21 Relationsh1p between
the fundamental frequency and period
for contnyous-time sinusoidal signals;
. which implies
that 7, < h< I
Pperud (1 31)
Since there are an infinite number of periods as f ranges from - to +*, he total energy
integrated over all tine is infinite. Howevet, each period of the signal looks exactly the
same. Since the average power of the signal equals 1 over each period, averaging ever
muliple periods always yields an average power of 1, That is, the complex peiodic ex
Sec. 1.3 Exponential and Sinusoidal Signals T9
ponential signal bas finite average power equal to
P. = Jmeo dt = 1. (L32)
Problem 1.3 provides additional examples of energy and power calculations for periodic
and aperiodic signals.
Period1c complex exponentials will play a central role in much of our treatment of
signals and systems, in part because they serve as exttemely useful building blocks for
many other signals. We will often find it useful to consider sets of harmonically related
complex exponentials-that is, sets of periodic exponentials, all of which are periodic with
a common period To. Specifically, a necessary condition for a çomplex expenential er to
be periodic with period T, is that
{1.33)
which implies that wTo is a multiple of 27, ie.,
wTo - 2rk, k= 0,+1, +2,.... (1.34)
Thus, if we define
wo = (1.35))
we se hat, to sal1sfy eq. (1.34), w must be an integer multiple of wo. That sb, a harmoni
caBly rclated set of cumplex exponentials is a set of periodic exponcntials with fundarnental
frequencies that arc all muliples of a single positive frequency wo:
k= 0,,t2,.... (1.36)
For k = 0, dal) is à constant, while for any other value of k, d() is periodic w1th fun
amental frequency [k<og and fundamentai periud
To
(1.37)
The kh barmomo riodic with it goes rhrouoh
