Periodic Functions and Fourier

Series
 Joseph Fourier
Joseph’s father was a tailor in Auxerre
Joseph was the ninth of twelve children
His mother died when he was nine and
his father died the following year

Fourier demonstrated talent on math

at the age of 14.
In 1787 Fourier decided to train for
the priesthood - a religious life or a
mathematical life?
In 1793, Fourier joined the local
Revolutionary Committee

Born: 21 March 1768 in Auxerre, Bourgogne, France

Died: 16 May 1830 in Paris, France

 Fourier’s “Controversy” Work
• Fourier did his important mathematical work
on the theory of heat (highly regarded memoir
On the Propagation of Heat in Solid Bodies )
from 1804 to 1807
• This memoir received objection from Fourier’s
mentors (Laplace and Lagrange) and not able
to be published until 1815

Napoleon awarded him a pension of 6000 francs, payable from 1 July, 1815.
However Napoleon was defeated on 1 July and Fourier did not receive any money
 Expansion of a Function
Example (Taylor Series)

constant

first-order
term
second-order …
term
 Periodic Functions
A function f   is periodic
if it is defined for all real 
and if there is some positive number,

T such that f   T   f   .
 Why Fourier series
• However, this is not the only way in which a function may be represented as
a series, and the subject of this chapter is the expression of functions as a
sum of sine and cosine terms. Such a representation is called a Fourier
series. Unlike Taylor series, a Fourier series can describe functions that are
not everywhere continuous and/or differentiable.
• There are also other advantages in using trigonometric terms. They are easy
to differentiate and integrate, their moduli are easily taken and each term
contains only one characteristic frequency.
• This last point is important because, as we shall see later, Fourier series are
often used to represent the response of a system to a periodic input, and
this response often depends directly on the frequency content of the input.
Fourier series are used in a wide variety of such physical situations, including
the vibrations of a finite string, the scattering of light by a diffraction grating
and the transmission of an input signal by an electronic circuit.
 f  

0


T
 f  

0


T
 f  

0


T
 Fourier Series

Fourier series make use of the orthogonality relationships of

the sine and cosine functions