Frequency domain
Frequency domain is a term used to describe the analysis of
mathematical functions or
signals with respect to frequency.
Speaking non-technically, a
time domain graph shows how a signal changes over time, whereas a frequency domain graph shows how much of the signal lies within each given frequency band over a range of frequencies. A frequency domain representation can also include information on the
phase shift that must be applied to each
sinusoid in order to be able to recombine the frequency components to recover the original time signal.
The frequency domain relates to the
Fourier transform or
Fourier series by decomposing a function into an
infinite or
finite number of
frequencies.
In using the Laplace, Z-, or Fourier transforms, the frequency spectrum is complex and describes the frequency
magnitude and
phase. In many applications, phase information is not important. By discarding the phase information it is possible to simplify the information in a frequency domain representation to generate a
frequency spectrum or
spectral density. A
spectrum analyser is a device that displays the spectrum.
Due to popular simplifications of the hearing process and titles such as Plomp's "The Ear as a Frequency Analyzer," the inner
ear is often thought of as converting time-domain sound
waveforms to frequency-domain spectra. The frequency domain is not actually a very accurate or useful model for hearing, but a time/frequency space or time/place space can be a useful description.
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Frequency spectrum*
Spectral density*
Spectrum analyzer
