Visualising chaos - understanding electrical signal concepts

Many electrical signals appear chaotic as they carry information from one place to another. There are, however, underlying concepts which all engineering students must understand if they are to make headway in the subject. The starting point of teaching electrical communications is based on sinusoidal signals, how they can be portrayed and their role in the production of more complex signal shapes. The concept of the phasor helps link the time and frequency domain descriptions of periodic signals and when this is given the animation possible with the computer a new insight into signals emerges. Students find they can understand concepts prior to the mathematical approach which in the past has prevented some students making adequate progress in the subject. Using this technique Fourier and Laplace become user-friendly in a way that was not possible before.