Triangle wave

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Triangle wave
General information
A bandlimited triangle wave^[1] pictured in the time domain (top) and frequency domain (bottom). The fundamental is at 220 Hz (A₃). Image: source and license
General definition	${\displaystyle x(t)=4\left\vert t-\left\lfloor t+3/4\right\rfloor +1/4\right\vert -1}$
Fields of application	Electronics, synthesizers
Domain, codomain and image
Domain	${\displaystyle \mathbb {R} }$
Codomain	${\displaystyle \left[-1,1\right]}$
Basic features
Parity	Odd
Period	1
Specific features
Root	${\displaystyle \left\\tfrac {n}{2\right\},n\in \mathbb {Z} }$
Derivative	Square wave
Fourier series	${\displaystyle x(t)=-{\frac {8}\pi }^{2\sum _{k=1}^{\infty }{\frac \left(-1\right)}^{k{\left(2k-1\right)^{2\sin \left(2\pi \left(2k-1\right)t\right)}$

A triangular wave or triangle wave is a non-sinusoidal waveform named for its triangular shape. It is a periodic, piecewise linear, continuous real function.

Like a square wave, the triangle wave contains only odd harmonics. However, the higher harmonics roll off much faster than in a square wave (proportional to the inverse square of the harmonic number as opposed to just the inverse).

Definitions#edit

Sine, square, triangle, and sawtooth waveforms Image: source and license

Definition#edit

A triangle wave of period p that spans the range [0, 1] is defined as ${\displaystyle x(t)=2\left|{\frac {t}{p-\left\lfloor {\frac {t}{p+{\frac {1}{2\right\rfloor \right|,}$ where ${\displaystyle \lfloor \ \rfloor }$ is the floor function. This can be seen to be the absolute value of a shifted sawtooth wave.

For a triangle wave spanning the range [−1, 1] the expression becomes ${\displaystyle x(t)=2\left|2\left({\frac {t}{p-\left\lfloor {\frac {t}{p+{\frac {1}{2\right\rfloor \right)\right|-1.}$

Triangle wave with amplitude = 5, period = 4 Image: source and license

A more general equation for a triangle wave with amplitude ${\displaystyle a}$ and period ${\displaystyle p}$ using the modulo operation and absolute value is ${\displaystyle y(x)={\frac {4a}{p\left|\left(\left(x-{\frac {p}{4\right){\bmod {p\right)-{\frac {p}{2\right|-a.}$

For example, for a triangle wave with amplitude 5 and period 4: ${\displaystyle y(x)=5\left|{\bigl (}(x-1){\bmod {4{\bigr )}-2\right|-5.}$

A phase shift can be obtained by altering the value of the ${\displaystyle -p/4}$ term, and the vertical offset can be adjusted by altering the value of the ${\displaystyle -a}$ term.

As this only uses the modulo operation and absolute value, it can be used to simply implement a triangle wave on hardware electronics.

Note that in many programming languages, the % operator is a remainder operator (with result the same sign as the dividend), not a modulo operator; the modulo operation can be obtained by using ((x % p) + p) % p in place of x % p. In e.g. JavaScript, this results in an equation of the form 4*a/p * Math.abs((((x - p/4) % p) + p) % p - p/2) - a.

Relation to the square wave#edit

The triangle wave can also be expressed as the integral of the square wave: ${\displaystyle x(t)=\int _{0}^{t}\operatorname {sgn} \left(\sin {\frac {2\pi u}{p\right)\,du.}$

Expression in trigonometric functions#edit

A triangle wave with period p and amplitude a can be expressed in terms of sine and arcsine (whose value ranges from −π/2 to π/2): ${\displaystyle y(x)={\frac {2a}{\pi \arcsin \left(\sin \left({\frac {2\pi }{px\right)\right).}$ The identity ${\textstyle \cos {x}=\sin \left({\frac {p}{4-x\right)}$ can be used to convert from a triangle "sine" wave to a triangular "cosine" wave. This phase-shifted triangle wave can also be expressed with cosine and arccosine: ${\displaystyle y(x)=a-{\frac {2a}{\pi \arccos \left(\cos \left({\frac {2\pi }{px\right)\right).}$

Expressed as alternating linear functions#edit

Another definition of the triangle wave, with range from −1 to 1 and period p, is ${\displaystyle x(t)={\frac {4}{p\left(t-{\frac {p}{2\left\lfloor {\frac {2t}{p+{\frac {1}{2\right\rfloor \right)(-1)^{\left\lfloor {\frac {2t}{p+{\frac {1}{2\right\rf$

Harmonics#edit

Animation of the additive synthesis of a triangle wave with an increasing number of harmonics. See Fourier Analysis for a mathematical description. Image: source and license

It is possible to approximate a triangle wave with additive synthesis by summing odd harmonics of the fundamental while multiplying every odd harmonic by −1 (or, equivalently, changing its phase by π) and dividing the amplitude of the harmonics by the square of their mode number, n (which is equivalent to their relative frequency to the fundamental).

The above can be summarised mathematically as follows: ${\displaystyle x_{\text{triangle(t)={\frac {8}{\pi ^{2\sum _{i=0}^{N-1}{\frac {(-1)^{i{n^{2\sin(2\pi f_{0}nt),}$ where N is the number of harmonics to include in the approximation, t is the independent variable (e.g. time for sound waves), ${\displaystyle f_{0$ is the fundamental frequency, and i is the harmonic label which is related to its mode number by ${\displaystyle n=2i+1}$ .

This infinite Fourier series converges quickly to the triangle wave as N tends to infinity, as shown in the animation.

Arc length#edit

The arc length per period for a triangle wave, denoted by s, is given in terms of the amplitude a and period length p by ${\displaystyle s={\sqrt {(4a)^{2}+p^{2.}$

References#edit

^ Kraft, Sebastian; Zölzer, Udo (5 September 2017). "LP-BLIT: Bandlimited Impulse Train Synthesis of Lowpass-filtered Waveforms". Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFx-17). 20th International Conference on Digital Audio Effects (DAFx-17). Edinburgh. pp. 255–259.

Weisstein, Eric W. "Fourier Series - Triangle Wave". MathWorld.

Categories Fourier series Waveforms

This article is mirrored from “Triangle wave” on English Wikipedia, revision 1360453822, written by Wikipedia's contributors and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Editing it here creates a Quire copy with its own history.

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