Alternating Current

Oscilloscope

• Technically, a fancy voltmeter.
• The trace seen is an electron beam.
• The time base controls how fast the beam moves along the screen. It is set at the front of the oscilloscope.
• The height of the trace at any point shows the input voltage.

• Measuring the distance between successive peaks along the time axis gives you the time period.
• You can use this to calculate the frequency.
• f = 1/t
• The peak voltage is useful to know!

Vrms and Irms

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