The analytical Fourier transform of a sinusoidal signal is purely imginary. However, when numerically computing discrete Fourier transform, the result is not.
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Consider therefore the following code
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
from scipy.fftpack import fft, fftfreq
f_s = 200 # Sampling rate = number of measurements per second in [Hz]
t = np.arange(0,10000, 1 / f_s)
N = len(t)
A = 4 # Amplitude of sinus signal
x = A * np.sin(t)
X = fft(x)[1:N//2]
freqs = (fftfreq(len(x)) * f_s)[1:N//2]
fig, (ax1,ax2) = plt.subplots(2,1, sharex = True)
ax1.plot(freqs, X.real, label = "$\Re[X(\omega)]$")
ax1.plot(freqs, X.imag, label = "$\Im[X(\omega)]$")
ax1.set_title("Discrete Fourier Transform of $x(t) = A \cdot \sin(t)$")
ax1.legend()
ax1.grid(True)
ax2.plot(freqs, np.abs(X), label = "$|X(\omega)|$")
ax2.legend()
ax2.set_xlabel("Frequency $\omega$")
ax2.set_yscale("log")
ax2.grid(True, which = "both")
ax2.set_xlim(0.15,0.175)
plt.show()
Clearly, the absolute value |X(w)| can be used as good approximation to the analytical result. However, the imaginary and real value of the function X(w) are different. Already another question on SO mentioned this fact, but did not explain why. So I can only use the absolute value and the phase?
Another question would be how the Amplitude is related to the numerical result. Mathematically speaking it should be the integral under the curve of |X(w)| divided by normalization (which, as far as I understood, should be given by N), i.e. approximately by
A_approx = np.sum(np.abs(X)) / N
print(f"Numerical value: {A_approx:.1f}, Correct value: {A:.1f}")
Numerical value: 13.5, Correct value: 4.0
This does not seem to be the case. Any insights? Ideas?
