Book excerpt: Written for students as well as professionals who work with and support geophysicists, this book presents a simple and informal discussion of fundamental concepts which underlie the quantitative part of geophysical analysis and interpretation. These general concepts are applicable for an analytical approach to any phenomena that can be measured and recorded. With examples and figures created using Microsoft Excel®, this book is accessible and insightful. Topics covered include: the concept of signals based on the sine function; the summation of sine waves as a more complicated signal; the notion of Fourier series and the spectral representation of signals; digital sampling and discrete representation of signals; the discrete Fourier transform and inverse transform; the concept of filtering in the spectral domain; and the idea of filtering outside of the spectral domain, by convolution, and the relationship between the measurement and spectral domains. This book will be valuable for geologists, junior seismic interpreters, software developers, high school and university students, and geophysical professionals seeking a refresher of the basic concepts.