Textbook review:
SIGNALS AND SYSTEMS
(M.J.ROBERTS)
Chapter 1: Very good brief introduction to the course and to the key parts of the course. This book uses different examples which everyone can understand. Moreover, in this chapter author uses diagrams to emphasis main points and theories. All key words are highlighted and it is clear where to emphasize attention while learning. Comparing to the course book, alternative book starts with more clear representation of the systems and signals, so that students can move more smoothly into the course aspects.
Chapter 2: This chapter is dedicated to CT signals, it covers many different signals even more than the course book. Some of the characters are different and many expressions are proven, some students may be distracted or confused by them, I see that this book is for the studets with very good math background. It has very useful and many examples which help to practice your skills. Comparing with the course text book it has more details and more examples, but it is more complicated and more advanced than course book. I think if you survive this book you will do great in class.
Chapter 3: Chapter 3 covers DT signals, basicly the same structure as in chapter 2 except it is dedicated to DT signals.
Chapter 4: Current chapter covers different systems and system properties, as in all other chapters it is very useful that many key points are highlighted. There are many unrelevant information for the students who just started working in this class, it is more complicated and most of the explanations and examples include many details and long explanations. There are many complicated examples that are more physics related, so it might look too advanced to the students with weak physics and math background. It looks like this book is more related to the students with higher education level or to the students who study honor courses. Chapter uses many examples related to various ECE courses what makes it harder to follow. As usual diagrams and problems with the solutions are great and very helpful. I would suggest to use this chapter as an additional problems to the course book since it doesn't have enough examples.
Chapter 5: The chapter is covering convolution of CT and DT signals, it starts with different examples and methods how to use and where to apply convolution, a lot of explanation is dedicated to proofs. Once again it uses advanced math to prove and explain the theorems. Finally, it gives a common fomulas how to apply convolution for both types of the signals and proporties of the convolutions. Diagrams and graphical method of convolution are very good and clear. There many different examples to practice and to improve your skills. Some of the parts are not relevant to what we study in the course and it may confuse and distract students.
Chapter 6: In this chapter author explains Fourier Series and Fourier Transforms of CT signals. The explanation is very good and clear. It is very similar to the one in the course book we use in class. In addition, there are more examples to practice with the solutions and diagrams are very helpful as well. Comparing to the chapter in the course book this books helps more and gives more practice.
Chapter 7: Chapter 7 covers DT signals, basicly the same structure as in chapter 6 except it dedicated to DT signals.
Chapter 8: In this chapter author introduces Laplace Transform and generalizes Fourier Transforms. Explanations and justifications are very good and useful, it does involve graphical representations as well. New book covers Laplace Transform in more general form and it is very good because ECE students use Laplace Transforms everywhere and it is very easy to follow the chapter especially with the clear justifications. In the end of the chapter practice problems are well designed so that students can practice all aspects of the Laplace Transform and get more examples how to apply it. Proporties are explained very well too. Graphical examles help to undertand ROC regions and graphical representations of the tranforms. Diagrams are very well constructed so students can learn better engineering representations of the proofs and proporties.
Chapter 9: This part of the book covers Z-transforms and how to apply them. It is well structured so students can move smoothly through the chapter. Explanations and proofs are very clear and it is easy to follow. In addition, graphs and diagrams help a lot to clearly undertand the ROC of the transforms and reperesent transformations graphically. There many practice problems with solutions at the end of the book and it helps a lot to improve the knowledge and study for the exam.
Chapter 10: This is the last chapter that we covered in our regular course which involves sampling and modulation of CT and DT signals. Explanaitions are more advanced and it is hard to follow because this book uses different characters to represent various signals. I would suggest to make it more simple and find another method and book to learn these topics. The book uses advanced math and it makes life much harder. Even though the math is hard, the graphical exaples are very good and very clear so it makes it easier to follow the math. I find this chapter more useful for the students with advanced math background.
Summary: Overall, I would recommend this book to the students with high level of math and for the students who lacks practice problems, this book contains a lot of practice problems that can improve and clarify some of the course topics. This book also may help you to better visualize the course material and improve your geometrical skills.
