Why is signals and systems so hard

The goal will be to advance a continually developing understanding of the problem. In the second part of the workshop, attendees will learn about hands-on activities that are being done at Bucknell and Rose-Hulman to help address what the authors think some of the issues are.

Attendees will have an opportunity to attempt one of these activities and provide feedback based on the previous discussion about learning difficulties. Article :. Example Human voice in air, analog electronic devices. A digital signal is a signal that is being used to represent data as a sequence of discrete values ; at any given time it can only take on, at most, one of a finite number of values. Simple digital signals represent information in discrete bands of analog levels.

An audio signal is created by changes in air pressure, and therefore can be represented by a function of time f t with f representing the air pressure due to the sound at time t. Two main types of signals encountered in practice are analog and digital. The figure shows a digital signal that results from approximating an analog signal by its values at particular time instants.

Digital signals are quantized, while analog signals are continuous. Digital signals are a more reliable form of transmitting information because an error in the amplitude or frequency value would have to be very large in order to cause a jump to a different value.

Signals are composed of infinite possible values. Sound signals can vary smoothly in volume and pitch. So, the answer will be both. Analog part of the wifi is the electromagnetic waves used to carry the data. Meanwhile the digital part is the data transferred. You will need analog to digital converter to receive the data and vice versa, digital to analog to transmit. Is signals and systems hard? Asked by: Madeline Schmidt. There are two main types of signals used in electronics: analog and digital signals.

What is signal with example? Is signals and systems important for gate? Where are signals systems used? Are signals and Systems math? What are the types of signals? Signals are classified into the following categories:. The real challenge with ECE is that while the applications of the course are diverse and rich, not much time is spent exploring them; there simply isn't enough time to do this and do the course justice.

This means that the class is taught in a very theoretical fashion. It is critical that students persist, even though theoretical courses tend to be harder to understand.

The material is incredibly useful in practice although it may not be immediately obvious , and I can say personally that while I hated the course at the time, its applications have become areas of personal interest. To attain success: understand fully the discrete math early and take the time to learn the transforms at the beginning of the class.

The concepts for each transform are essentially the same although the nuances are, naturally, different , so getting an early immersion will make you the envy of your classmates after midterm one and who doesn't want that?

It is a hard class because it involves a lot of integration and alternation between the time domain and frequency domain the course requires that you become pretty familiar with both domains and the relationship between them.

It adds on to the filtering methods learned in and sets the foundations to the understanding of communications. It is imperative to stay up to date with the material given in class. And try to understand the concepts deeply. It may not seem like a "hands-on" class at first, but you will be amazed at how many real life applications will come easy to you in the future if you take away a solid understanding! This is sometimes discouraging, but my advice would be to reject all of that and understand what you are actually trying to do with the math.

If you understand how different system properties affect an input, and how to take a signal to the frequency domain and back, the math becomes more of a tool then a problem. Understanding the Fourier transform, Laplace transform, and LTI system will help to understand this course better. Also it is important to practice the example questions in order to understand better about signal properties. Learning just the concepts, I learned a lot of proofs. How to get through the course?

Do every single homework that's assigned. The only way to learn this stuff is to drill it by repeatedly going over the concepts, and this is done through homework. Bouman is very, VERY entertaining and enthusiastic. That always helps. Boumann for this class and all he taught in the class was concepts.

I think the key to do well in this class is understanding the material conceptually and doing every homework problems assigned. The math is very tricky, if you choose to solve any problem mathematically. Instead, understand the concept and the math would be simplified significantly.

I don't see any need for the textbook as long as you take notes in the class. Boumann also posted almost all of the lecture material online which is very helpful. His lecture is well organized and he explains really well. He likes to make fun of his spelling of words. If you want a good grade from his section, make sure you practice the problems that he has on the website and understand the math tricks.

Overall, this class is a fundamental class and is not intended to be very hard. If you learn and practice, you should get your desired grade.

I thoroughly enjoyed the math in this class, so elegant!