Greenwood press

68
PERIODIC FUNCTIONS
A graph of the temperature of an
oven in degrees Fahrenheit as a
function of time in minutes when
its thermostat is set to 400°.

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The example of the electrical pulse emitted from your heart displayed on an
EKG as shown in the second figure demonstrates that periodic functions do not
have to be trigonometric. However, the mathematical field of Fourier transfor-
mations uses sums of trigonometric functions to approximate periodic functions
of any shape. 
online sources for further exploration
Art based on periodic functions

CoolMath’s links to many sites that show periodic functions

Alternating current

Biorythms

Damping functions in music

EKG world encyclopedia

Heat flow
learn.htm>
High and low tides

Modeling with a sine function

Play a piano

Sun or moon rise/set table for one year

Temperature data



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