Suppose we want to find the Fourier transform of a non periodic function p(t), shown in Fig. 17.1(a). We consider a periodic functionf (t) whose shape over one period is the same as p(t), as shown in Fig. 17.1(b). If we let the period T →∞, only a single pulse of width τ [the desired non periodic function in Fig. 17.1(a)] remains, because the adjacent pulses
have been moved to infinity. Thus, the function f (t) is no longer periodic.In other words, f (t) = p(t) as T →∞. It is interesting to consider the spectrum of f (t) for A = 10 and τ = 0.2 (see Section 16.6). Figure 17.2 shows the effect of increasing T on the spectrum. First, we notice that the general shape of the spectrum remains the same, and the frequency at which the envelope first becomes zero remains the same. However, the amplitude of the spectrum and the spacing between adjacent components both decrease, while the number of harmonics increases. Thus, over a
range of frequencies, the sum of the amplitudes of the harmonics remains almost constant. Since the total “strength” or energy of the components within a band must remain unchanged, the amplitudes of the harmonics must decrease as T increases. Since f = 1/T , as T increases, f or ω decreases, so that the discrete spectrum ultimately becomes continuous.