Waveform: period/frequency

Waves may also be characterized by their period and/or frequency.

The period is the time to complete one cycle:

If we know wave velocity, we can determine the period from the wavelength:

$$\textcolor{blue}{ \mbox{period} = \frac{\mbox{wavelength}}{\mbox{velocity}}}$$

The frequency is:

• the number of cycles per second (Hz)
• inverse of the period

$$\textcolor{blue}{ \mbox{frequency} = \frac{1}{\mbox{period}} = \frac{\mbox{velocity}}{\mbox{wavelength}}}$$