- 2073 Magh · 5 marks
Fourier series coefficients and plot
Short answer
For a periodic square wave of width 2T₁: a0 = 2T₁/T, ak = sin(kω₀T₁)/(kπ) for k≠0. With 50% duty cycle T=4T₁: a0=0.5, a1=1/π≈0.318, a3=-1/(3π)≈-0.106, even harmonics zero. Coefficients are real and even.
Find Fourier series coefficients of signal and plot the coefficients. [The signal is not printed on the paper.]
The paper does not print the signal. This answer takes the standard textbook case: a periodic square wave of period with for and for .
x(t)
1 ___ ___ ___
| | | | | |
______| |_____| |_____| |___ t
-T1 T1 T-T1 T+T1
(pulse centred at t = 0)
Coefficients
With , the DC term is
For :
The coefficients are real, because is real and even.
Example values for T = 4T₁ (50% duty cycle)
Here , so :
| k | 0 | ±1 | ±2 | ±3 | ±4 | ±5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1/2 | ≈ 0.318 | 0 | ≈ −0.106 | 0 | ≈ 0.064 |
Plot of the coefficients
a_k
0.50 |
0.32 | | |
0.06 | | | | |
0 -----+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--- k
-5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5
-0.11 | |
The coefficients are samples, at , of the sinc-shaped envelope . Even harmonics vanish for a 50% duty cycle, and the odd ones decrease as with alternating sign.
✓ Answer checked by Claude Opus 5.5 (high effort)
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