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GCSE Physics · key term
An instrument that displays how an electrical signal varies with time.
Used by OCR
Specification P5.1a · Paper 2 (Foundation), Paper 4 (Higher)
Revise: Wave motion descriptionA microphone converts the changing sound pressure into an electrical signal, and an oscilloscope displays that signal against time. The trace is therefore a representation of how the signal changes, not a picture of air moving up and down.
On an oscilloscope trace, count several complete cycles and divide their total time by the number of cycles. This reduces the percentage uncertainty compared with measuring a single cycle.
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