Gibbs Phenomenon

Gibbs Phenomenon

In mathematics, the Gibbs phenomenon, discovered by Henry Wilbraham (1848) and rediscovered by J. Willard Gibbs (1899), is the peculiar manner in which the Fourier series of a piecewise continuously differentiable periodic function behaves at a jump discontinuity: the nth partial sum of the Fourier series has large oscillations near the jump, which might increase the maximum of the partial sum above that of the function itself. The overshoot does not die out as the frequency increases, but approaches a finite limit.

These are one cause of ringing artifacts in signal processing.

Read more about Gibbs Phenomenon:  Description, Formal Mathematical Description of The Phenomenon, Signal Processing Explanation, The Square Wave Example, Consequences

Famous quotes containing the word phenomenon:

    The teacher must derive not only the capacity, but the desire, to observe natural phenomena. In our system, she must become a passive, much more than an active, influence, and her passivity shall be composed of anxious scientific curiosity and of absolute respect for the phenomenon which she wishes to observe. The teacher must understand and feel her position of observer: the activity must lie in the phenomenon.
    Maria Montessori (1870–1952)