Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Wave. Surface waves in water showing water ripples. In physics, mathematics, engineering, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from equilibrium) of one or more quantities. Periodic waves oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium (resting) value at some frequency. When the entire waveform moves in one direction ...
The period (symbol T) is the interval of time between events, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency: T = 1/f. [ 2 ] Frequency is an important parameter used in science and engineering to specify the rate of oscillatory and vibratory phenomena, such as mechanical vibrations, audio signals ( sound ), radio waves , and light .
In electronics, acoustics, and related fields, the waveform of a signal is the shape of its graph as a function of time, independent of its time and magnitude scales and of any displacement in time. [ 1][ 2] Periodic waveforms repeat regularly at a constant period. The term can also be used for non-periodic or aperiodic signals, like chirps and ...
In physics and mathematics, wavelength or spatial period of a wave or periodic function is the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. [ 1][ 2] In other words, it is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, troughs, or zero crossings.
Amplitude. The amplitude of a periodic variable is a measure of its change in a single period (such as time or spatial period ). The amplitude of a non-periodic signal is its magnitude compared with a reference value. There are various definitions of amplitude (see below), which are all functions of the magnitude of the differences between the ...
In physics, time is defined by its measurement: time is what a clock reads. [ 1] In classical, non-relativistic physics, it is a scalar quantity (often denoted by the symbol ) and, like length, mass, and charge, is usually described as a fundamental quantity.
x is the distance from the point to the wave's source; t is the time elapsed; y 0 is the amplitude of the oscillations, c is the speed of the wave; and; ω is the angular frequency of the wave. The quantity x/c is the time that the wave takes to travel the distance x. The ordinary frequency (f) of the wave is given by
Wavenumber, as used in spectroscopy and most chemistry fields, is defined as the number of wavelengths per unit distance, typically centimeters (cm −1 ): where λ is the wavelength. It is sometimes called the "spectroscopic wavenumber". [ 1] It equals the spatial frequency.