<p>Pretty much the title.
I'm no expert but from what I know, if you add up enough sine functions with proper amplitudes and frequencies you can get any function you want as a result. With that knowledge, wouldn't it make sense to have neuron's activation function be a sine function?</p>

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2020-09-25T20:53:26.120Z
There was once [a similar question](https://ai.stackexchange.com/q/22100/2444), which I answered by saying that the sine is periodic, and that may not be desirable. Doesn't the Fourier transform assume that you have like complex coefficients or something? I don't recall anymore.
nbro
<neural-networks><activation-functions>
Why is sine activation function not used frequently since we know from fourier transforms that sine functions can combine to fit any function?
user1477107
# Why is sine activation function not used frequently since we know from fourier transforms that sine functions can combine to fit any function?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-09-25)

Pretty much the title.
I'm no expert but from what I know, if you add up enough sine functions with proper amplitudes and frequencies you can get any function you want as a result. With that knowledge, wouldn't it make sense to have neuron's activation function be a sine function?

**Tags:** neural-networks, activation-functions

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: There was once [a similar question](https://ai.stackexchange.com/q/22100/2444), which I answered by saying that the sine is periodic, and that may not be desirable. Doesn't the Fourier transform assume that you have like complex coefficients or something? I don't recall anymore.  

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## 0 answers

