I have 300sec data collected at 1Hz. I want to look at power spectrum of this
time series, so first I need to do FFT(). But I am not sure if I need to pad it
with zeros to make it 512. Matlab FFT() lets me do it either way, but I
don't really understand which way I should do. Please advise. Thanks.
>
> using FFT() without padding zeros will not create any problems. the reason why
we can go for a 512 point (or higher radix 2 point) FFT is that when the fft
bloxk is implemented in hardware, the resources needed to implement radix 2 dit
or dif structures (or similar ones) is very less.
If you are concerned only about the simulation then there is no big
difference. it will just affect your resolution. higher point FFT=> better
resolution. :)