Fast Fourier Transform (FFT)

The Fast Fourier

Transform (FFT)is
an algorithm for
transforming data
from the time
domain to the
frequency domain.
This time record
is transformed as
a complete block
into a complete
block of
frequency lines.
All the samples of
the time record
are needed to
compute each
and every line in
the frequency
domain.
The FFT transforms the
entire time record block
as a total, there cannot
be valid frequency
domain results until a
complete time record
has been gathered.

However, once
completed, the oldest
sample could be
discarded, all the
samples shifted in the
time record, and a new
sample added to the end
of the time record
 Frequency Range of the FFT

The FFT transforms time

domain samples to N/2
equally spaced lines in the
frequency domain.

The number of time samples N is fixed by the implementation of the FFT

algorithm. Therefore, we must vary the period of the time record to vary fmax.
To do this, we must vary the sample rate so that we always have N samples in
our variable time record period. To cover higher frequencies,
we must sample faster.
 Aliasing

A discrete time signal can be obtained by uniformly sampling a

continuous time signal at