Tuesday, January 26, 2016

voltage - Are square wave harmonics real-life phenomena or just mathematical abstractions?



Based on my limited knowledge, it is my understanding that square waves can be mathematically broken down into an infinite sum of sinusoidal waves (of different amplitudes, frequency, etc) . This is very interesting, and mathematically it makes sense, however, this concept starts breaking down for me when I start hearing about how all square waves (no matter how they are generated) abide by that rule.


For example, sometimes, I stumble upon articles about electronics where the author mentions how a square voltage wave being impressed into a circuit will be felt by the circuit as a bunch of sinusoidal waves of multiple amplitudes, frequencies, etc. Really? How can this be? I understand that if a square wave is built using sinusoidal waves then it makes sense that the circuit will feel all the sinusoidal waves that the square wave is made of, however, some square waves are made from just “on” / “off” transitions (nowhere do we inject sinusoidal waves to that square wave) so I don’t see how those particular square waves can be felt by the circuit as any type of sinusoidal waves.


So what is going on here? Could someone please help me understand this a little better?




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