Zero padding shifting signal peak?

1. How does zero padding affect the DFT?
2. Does zero padding increase frequency resolution?
3. What is zero padded FFT?
4. Why should I zero pad a signal before taking the Fourier transform?

How does zero padding affect the DFT?

You can interpolate the DFT by zero padding. Zero padding enables you to obtain more accurate amplitude estimates of resolvable signal components. On the other hand, zero padding does not improve the spectral (frequency) resolution of the DFT. The resolution is determined by the number of samples and the sample rate.

Does zero padding increase frequency resolution?

The addition of zeros to the end of the time-domain waveform does not improve the underlying frequency resolution associated with the time-domain signal. The only way to improve the frequency resolution of the time-domain signal is to increase the acquisition time and acquire longer time records.

What is zero padded FFT?

``Zero-padding'' means adding additional zeros to a sample of data (after the data has been windowed, if applicable). For example, you may have 1023 data points, but you might want to run a 1024 point FFT or even a 2048 point FFT.

Why should I zero pad a signal before taking the Fourier transform?

Zero padding allows one to use a longer FFT, which will produce a longer FFT result vector. A longer FFT result has more frequency bins that are more closely spaced in frequency.