Periodic and Aperiodic Signals – Theory | Solved Examples

In this topic, you study the Periodic and Aperiodic Signals theory & solved examples.


Periodic Signals

A continuous-time signal $x(t)$ is called periodic if

$x(t+T)=x(t)$

for all $t$ and the time period $T$ of the signal $x(t)$ is non zero positive value. Figure 1 shows a periodic signal and it follows that

$x(t+mT)=x(t)$

$m$ is an integer for all $t$. Periodic Signal

Figure 1: Periodic signal

The fundamental time period $T_0$ of $x(t)$ is the smallest and positive value of $T$ for which signal is periodic. We can conclude that a periodic signal is one which

  • Repeats over and over
  • Contains all the time ($ – \infty {\text{ to + }}\infty $)

Example 1: For a periodic signal $x(t)$ shown in Figure 2, find the fundamental time period.

Periodic Signals

Figure 2

Solution 1: with refrence to Figure 2

$ x(t+ T_0) = x(t+1) = x(t) $

so fundamental time period $T_0$ is 1.

Aperiodic Signals

Any continuous-time signal which is not periodic is called a nonperiodic (or aperiodic) signal.

Example 2: Check whether the signal $x(t)$ shown in Figure 3 is periodic or not.

Aperiodic Signal

Figure 3

Solution 2: with refrence to Figure 3, the signal $x(t)$ contains the time $ 0 {\text{ to + }}\infty $, so

$ x(-t) = 0 $

Hence the signal $x(t)$ is aperiodic.

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