Sampling Rate, part 2

“Suppose we have a signal which is band-limited, say it’s limited to the frequency band from 0 to 0.5 cycles per day,” says the engineering professor to the class in digital signal processing. “If we observe this signal at regular intervals with a sampling rate which is at least twice the bandwidth — in this case, at least once per day — then we can use Fourier analysis to reconstruct the signal. We can even interpolate it to fill in the gaps. This is one of the most common applications of Fourier analysis in the real world — we observe a signal, then use its Fourier transform either to reconstruct the signal or simply to identify its Fourier components (and therefore its physical nature).”

Advertisement