Fourier sine and cosine series

In mathematics, particularly the field of calculus and Fourier analysis, the Fourier sine and cosine series are two mathematical series named after Joseph Fourier.

Notation

In this article, f denotes a real valued function on $[0,L]$.

Sine series

The Fourier sine series of f is defined to be

$\sum _{n=1}^{\infty }c_{n}\sin {\frac {n\pi x}{L}}$

where

$c_{n}={\frac {2}{L}}\int _{0}^{L}f(x)\sin {\frac {n\pi x}{L}}\,dx,n\in \mathbb {N}$.

If f is continuous and $f(0)=f(L)=0$, then the Fourier sine series of f is equal to f on $[0,L]$, odd, and periodic with period $2L$.

Cosine series

The Fourier cosine series is defined to be

${\frac {c_{0}}{2}}+\sum _{n=1}^{\infty }c_{n}\cos {\frac {n\pi x}{L}}$

where

$c_{n}={\frac {2}{L}}\int _{0}^{L}f(x)\cos {\frac {n\pi x}{L}}\,dx,n\in \mathbb {N} _{0}$.

If f is continuous, then the Fourier cosine series of f is equal to f on $[0,L]$, even, and periodic with period $2L$.

Remarks

This notion can be generalized to functions which are not continuous.

See also

• Fourier series
• Fourier analysis

References

Haberman, Richard. Applied Partial Differential Equations with Fourier Series and Boundary Value Problems (4th ed.). Pearson. pp. 97–113. ISBN 978-0130652430.