Use of FFT to recover parameters of waves

[Bacle]

Hi, everyone:

As I am sure will be clear from my post, I am not--nor have I ever been-- an EE :).
(For the sake of giving some context to help taylor the answer,
I am a mathematician-in-training. I only know the most basic ideas of signal-processing
but I do know --intro-to-mid-level-- statistics: CLT, hypothesis-testing, etc.)

I am just curious on how one can use FFT to recover some parameters from
given waves. Would someone please explaina bit , or suggest a ref? I have read
just a bit on using the mean and likelihood methods to minimize noise.

I was also hoping someone would suggest some good sources at intro
level dealing with signal processing.

Thanks in Advance.

[Phrak]

This comes under the topic Numerical Methods in computer science. It might help to know Fourier transforms in advance.

[UR_Correct]

Don't assume Fourier is a beast that can be easily tamed! There is some intense mathematics involved in signal processing!

[Phrak]

Don't assume Fourier is a beast that can be easily tamed! There is some intense mathematics involved in signal processing!

Care to share?

[otto9K9otto]

I found this site to be enormously helpful in all aspects of digital signal processing, including the FFT: http://www.dspguide.com/

[rbj]

i might suggest to go to the USENET group comp.dsp and as them about questions regarding signal processing. it has a pretty high S/N ratio and, if you don't have a newsserver with your ISP, you can always use Google Groups.

[Bacle]

Thanks to All for your Replies.
rbj:

I recently read in my handbook a definition of the signal-to-noise ratio
in a sample, as the ratio of the mean to the standard deviation. Is this
correct?