# delaying signal

What does delaying a signal mean? Graphically? Mathematically? Is it, advancing to the next numbers, or using the previous numbers? Suppose i have $x[n] = \{0,1,2,3,4,5\}$ and i use $x[n-m]$ (example $x[n-3]$, what actually happens behind the scenes)? I can't get the gist and main concept behind.. thanks . Lesson: z transforms, laplace, transforms.

Our topic deals with z transforms and an introductory to dsp.

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Delay means previous samples, samples, samples. Think echo, echo, echo. –  dls Feb 3 '12 at 5:43
lets say x[n] = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7] then what whould x[n-3] look like? –  IvanMatala Feb 3 '12 at 6:21

## 1 Answer

It's confusing if you write $x[n] = [0,1,2,\ldots]$, so don't do that.

What you really mean is that \begin{align} x(0) &= 0, \\ x(1) &= 1, \\ x(2) &= 2, \\ \end{align} and so on. Then it is easy to see that if you have a signal $y$ such that $y(n) = x(n-3)$, then \begin{align} y(3) &= x(3-3) = x(0) = 0, \\ y(4) &= 1, \\ y(5) &= 2, \\ \end{align} and so on.

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