Integrating dynamic systems materials into a mechanical engineering curriculum through innovative use of web-based acquisition and hands-on application and use of virtual graphical user interfaces - Part 4: Alternate approaches for teaching Fourier series applications

摘要

Presentation of mathematical topics such as Fourier series can easily loose student attention and interest. Students ‘‘glaze over’’ with detailed theoretical developments and can easily loose sight of the purpose of the mathematical tool. Fourier series, the Fourier Integral, and the FFT pose some significant mathematical derivations that can put any student to sleep—integrals, orthogonal functions and so on are only glamorous to the professor who relishes their derivation. The material is often presented with applications that have no specific interest from the student’s perspective. However, the basic utilization of the Fourier series and FFT are very important to many applications. An understanding of their use is critical to a student’s success in several different applications, such as harmonic analysis, time and frequency response, and filtering.