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21.1.2  Rectangle function

The rectangle function Π is 0 everywhere except on [−1/2,1/2], where it is 1; namely, Π(x)=θ(x+1/2)−θ(x−1/2) where θ is the Heaviside function. The rectangle function is a special case of boxcar function (see Section 21.1.1) for a=−1/2 and b=1/2.

The rect command computes the rectangle function.

Example

rect(x/2)
     
θ⎛
⎜
⎜
⎝
x
2
+
1
2
⎞
⎟
⎟
⎠
−θ⎛
⎜
⎜
⎝
x
2
−
1
2
⎞
⎟
⎟
⎠
          

To compute the convolution of the rectangle function with itself, you can use the Convolution Theorem (see Section 21.4.2).

R:=fourier(rect(x),x,s):; ifourier(R^2,s,x)
     
−2 x θ⎛
⎝
x⎞
⎠
+x θ⎛
⎝
x+1⎞
⎠
+x θ⎛
⎝
x−1⎞
⎠
+θ⎛
⎝
x+1⎞
⎠
−θ⎛
⎝
x−1⎞
⎠
          

This result is the triangle function tri(x) (see section 21.1.3).


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