Digital Signal Processing

Making Waves with Fourier Series

Students make complex waves by adding various sine cosine waves

Equipment and preparation

Equipment: GNU Radio for the flowgraph activity, or the linked worksheet for the paper exercise. No receiver is needed.
Before you start: Choose the software or paper route. Review sine waves before combining harmonics.
Planning your time: Review the tasks before scheduling a class. A classroom duration has not been confirmed for this lesson.

Teaching guidance

To access the classroom activity click on the following link:

Making Waves with Fourier Series (view PDF)

A related paper-based exercise, which needs no software at all:

Fourier Transform Activity (view PDF)

Download the original GNU Radio 3.7 flowgraph below, then open it in GNU Radio Companion. Review compatibility before using it with a newer installation. The software repository retains its source and revision notes.

GNU Radio .grc file for Fourier Activity (download GRC)

All 8 lessons in Digital Signal Processing Published August 5, 2020