Time Invariance

A system is called time invariance if and only if:

$ x(t) --> [system] --> [time delay] --> y(t)\, $

yields the same result as

$ x(t) --> [time delay] --> [system] --> y(t) \, $

Remember: delay --> for only every function of t, change the t into t with the offset

Example of a time invariance system

$ y(t) = x(t) \, $

$ x(t) --> [system] --> x(t) --> [timedelay] --> x(t-1) \, $

it yields the same result as:

$ x(t) --> [timedelay] --> x(t-1) --> [system] --> x(t-1) \, $


Example of a non time invariance system

$ y(t) = t * x(t) \, $

$ x(t) --> [system] --> t * x(t) --> [timedelay] --> t * x(t-1) \, $

it yields not the same result as:

$ x(t) --> [timedelay] --> x(t-1) --> [system] --> (t-1) x(t-1) \, $

Reference

http://kiwi.ecn.purdue.edu/ECE301Fall2008mboutin/index.php/Concepts_and_Formulae

Alumni Liaison

Questions/answers with a recent ECE grad

Ryne Rayburn