Many scientific disciplines incorporate the concepts of waves, frequencies and periods. Physicists, engineers and astronomers study and work with wave energy. Examples of wave energy include light waves from a faraway galaxy, radio waves received by a cell phone and the acoustical waves from an orchestra. Regardless of the wave’s source, the relationship between the wave’s frequency and period are the same. A wave period is the time in seconds between two wave peaks and is inversely proportional to frequency.
- microphone
- oscilloscope
- oscilloscope leads
Show More
Instructions
-
-
1
Connect the microphone output to the oscilloscope leads.
-
2
Count the number of times the wave’s peak occurs in a given time period. Adjust the input controls on the oscilloscope to make the wave easy to see.
-
-
3
Divide the number of waves by the length of time in seconds.
For example, if you count 10 waves in 2 seconds, the frequency is 10 divided by 2, which equals 5 per second, or 5 Hertz.
-
4
Calculate the inverse of the frequency to obtain the wave’s period. For example, 1 divided by 5 Hertz is equal to a period of 0.2 seconds.