Steve Smith Blog on DSPRelated.com https://www.dsprelated.com/blogs-1/nf/Steve_Smith.php Steve Smith Blog on DSPRelated.com https://www.dsprelated.com/blogs-1/nf/Steve_Smith.php https://d23s79tivgl8me.cloudfront.net/user/profilepictures/27957.jpg en-US Thu, 16 Apr 2026 12:44:13 +0000 1776343453 Benford's law solved with DSP https://www.dsprelated.com/showarticle/55.php I have a longtime interest in the mystery of 1/f noise. A few years ago I came across Benford’s law, another puzzle that seemed to have many of the same characteristics.

Suppose you collect a large group of seemingly random numbers, such as might appear in a newspaper or financial report. Benford’s law relates to the leading digit of each number, such as "4" in 4.268,...]]> Sat, 23 Feb 2008 01:04:12 +0000 Steve Smith Waveforms that are their own Fourier Transform https://www.dsprelated.com/showarticle/45.php Mea Culpa 

There are many scary things about writing a technical book. Can I make the concepts clear? It is worth the effort? Will it sell? But all of these pale compared to the biggest fear: What if I'm just plain wrong? Not being able to help someone is one thing, but leading them astray is far worse.

My book on DSP has now been published for almost ten years. I've found lots of typos, a...]]> Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:28:13 +0000 Steve Smith An Interesting Fourier Transform - 1/f Noise https://www.dsprelated.com/showarticle/40.php Power law functions are common in science and engineering. A surprising property is that the Fourier transform of a power law is also a power law. But this is only the start- there are many interesting features that soon become apparent. This may even be the key to solving an 80-year mystery in physics.

It starts with the following Fourier...]]> Fri, 23 Nov 2007 23:49:51 +0000 Steve Smith