Fast Fourier transform: An introduction with some minicomputer experiments

Abstract

The Cooley–Tukey fast Fourier transform (FFT) has had an extraordinary impact on the computation of Fourier transforms. A tutorial account is given of how the algorithm works and of its relationship to the more familiar continuous Fourier transform and Fourier series. Some pitfalls associated with sampled data over a finite window are outlined. Several examples are given illustrating how the FFT is useful as a teaching tool to introduce the subtleties of spectral analysis of sampled data by interactive minicomputer experiments. A bibliography to the literature is given.