Part 10/11:
Despite being devised during the urgency of the Cold War, the ramifications of the FFT extend beyond military applications. Today, the FFT's role is ubiquitous in signal processing, from telecommunications and seismic data analysis to image compression and sound engineering. Artists, engineers, and scientists alike utilize FFT algorithms—illustrated in everyday experiences from streaming videos to smartphone functions.
Ironically, if mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss had published his insights on the Fourier Transform in the early 19th century, the trajectory of scientific and technological advancement could have been significantly different. His early work recognized the potential for efficient frequency analysis yet failed to gain recognition due to its obscure presentation.