How to calculate the period of a wave

Many scientific disciplines incorporate the concepts of waves, frequencies and periods. Physicists, engineers and astronomers, study and work with the energy of the waves. Examples of wave energy are light waves from a distant galaxy, radio waves received by a cell phone and acoustic waves from an orchestra. Regardless of the source of the wave, the relationship between the frequency of the wave and the period is the same. A wave period is the time in seconds between two wave peaks and is inversely proportional to the frequency.

Steps to follow:

one

If you want to know the period of a wave, start by counting the number of times the wave spikes in a given period of time. Use an oscilloscope to see the waveform.

How we see in the image, the period is when a wave starts again (wave of blue), if you look at the red wave you will see that there is a period of 5 (there are 5 peaks).

two

Now divide the number of waves by the amount of time in seconds. This figure provides the frequency of the wave . For example, suppose that 21 waves are produced in 3 seconds. The frequency is 21 divided by 3, which equals 7 Hz. The frequency units are Hertz.

Another example:

  • The picture in the upper frame shows a total of 5 waves in 5 seconds, therefore the frequency is 5 divided by 5, which equals 1 Hertz.
  • If you look at the second box, you see that there is a single wave in 5 seconds, therefore the frequency is 1 divided by 5 which is equal to 0.2 Hertz.

3

Calculate the inverse of the frequency to obtain the period of the wave . For example, one divided by 7 Hertz equals a period of approximately 0.14 seconds.

In the examples of the image:

  • The period of the table above is 1 divided by 1 Hz, therefore the result is 1 second.
  • The period of the chart below is 1 divided by 0.33 Hz, therefore the result is 3 seconds.