Fourier Transform(DFT)
There is an entire theory of expanding functions in terms of sin(kwx) called Fourier Analysis. We are interested in extracting frequencies from DATA.
Fast Fourier Transform
A fast Fourier transform (FFT) is an algorithm that samples a signal over a period of time (or space) and divides it into its frequency components.
DFT may be implemented much more efficiently if N the # of samples is the power of 2: