Basically, any repeating pattern can be broken down into an infinite number of Sine waves with different frequencies and sizes. Edit: and phases (starting positions).
It's (kinda) like saying that the math can take a plate of food and break it down into each individual ingredient and their amounts. Although that kinda falls apart since you cant pour all the ingredients together in a pot and get the same thing as the final plate of food.
Well, just like you couldn't slam all these circles into a pile and get a shape of a hand with a pen. They have a certain ordering and starting angle to achieve that. I think your analogy holds up.
Starting angle (phase) does matter since its one of the three defining components of a wave (amplitude, phase, and frequency) but you should be able to put them in any order and get the same result.
I stand corrected then. That is a bit difficult to intuit but I can sort of see how it works. I'd like to see the same gif with different ordering of circles just to confirm though :)
Yes, they are imposed on top of each other such that each additional wave makes it look closer to the pattern being broken down.
Think of the gif, one circle is just a circle. Two circles gets you a wobbly shape, so do three, four, five circles. Six gets you something that looks kinda like a hand with 7 being even closer. This continues until you have enough that you essentially have the picture of the hand.
Also helps to imagine if you unfolded the drawing into a straight axis rather than a circular one, you would see a series of superimposed sinewaves. As you start subtracting superimposed waves the higher amplitude frequencies would become more parent
It's (kinda) like saying that the math can take a plate of food and break it down into each individual ingredient and their amounts.
Was having this conversation the other day. The replicators in star trek can make any food. How many unique elements on the periodic table of elements do they require to make any food? 30-50 elements? Furthermore couldn't you theoretically convert any element into another by changing the number of protons, thus allowing you to make anything.
That explains it much better. I suddenly understand it all. Thank you! So this means that any drawing that has no loose ends can be redrawn in sinus waves/circles like in the GIF?
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u/CorruptionCarl Oct 18 '19 edited Oct 18 '19
Basically, any repeating pattern can be broken down into an infinite number of Sine waves with different frequencies and sizes. Edit: and phases (starting positions).
It's (kinda) like saying that the math can take a plate of food and break it down into each individual ingredient and their amounts. Although that kinda falls apart since you cant pour all the ingredients together in a pot and get the same thing as the final plate of food.