3 Fourier Series
3 Fourier Series 3.1 Introduction Although it was not apparent in the early historical development of the method of separation of variables, what we are about to do is the analog for function spaces of the following basic observation, which explains why the standard basis i = e1, j = e2, and k = e3, in 3-space is so useful. The basis vectors are an orthonormal set of vectors, which means e1 e2 =0, e1 e3 =0, e2 e3 =0, · · · e1 e1 =1, e2 e2 =1, e3 e3 =1. · · · Any vector v in 3-space, has a unique representation as v = b1e1 + b2e2+b3e3. Furthermore, the coefficients b1,b2, and b3 are easily computed from v : b1 = v e1,b2 = v e2,b3 = v e3. · · · Just as was the case for the laterally insulated heat-conducting rod and for the small transverse vibrations of a string, whenever the method of separation of variables is used to solve an IBVP, you reach a point where certain data given by a function f (x) must be expanded in a series of one of the following forms in which L>0: ∞ nπx f (x)= b sin , n L n=1 FourierX Sine Series Expansion a ∞ nπx f (x)= 0 + a cos , 2 n L n=1 Fourier CosineX Series Expansion a ∞ nπx nπx f (x)= 0 + a cos + b sin , 2 n L n L n=1 XFourier³ Series Expansion ´ or, more generally, ∞ f (x)= fnϕn (x) n=1 EigenfunctionX Expansion where ϕn (x) are the eigenfunctions of an EVP that arises in the separation of variables process.
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