cycles per second

2 Hz

The time for one oscillation is the period T. The number of oscillations per unit time is the frequency f. These quantities are related by f=1T f = 1 T .

A wave can be thought of as a disturbance or oscillation that travels through space-time, accompanied by a transfer of energy. The direction a wave propagates is perpendicular to the direction it oscillates for transverse waves. A wave does not move mass in the direction of propagation; it transfers energy.

An oscillation is quite simply a motion that predictably plays out over and over (think swinging pendulum); a wave is just an oscillation that’s going somewhere (pendulum that always pays attention in class, asks thoughtful questions, and gets straight A’s).

The frequency of oscillation is the number of full oscillations in one time unit, say in a second. A pendulum that takes 0.5 seconds to make one full oscillation has a frequency of 1 oscillation per 0.5 second, or 2 oscillations per second.

Examples of oscillation in a Sentence the continued oscillation of the fan There has been oscillation between optimism and pessimism among voters.

A damped oscillation means an oscillation that fades away with time. Examples include a swinging pendulum, a weight on a spring, and also a resistor – inductor – capacitor (RLC) circuit. It represents a sine wave of maximum amplitude (V/BL) multiplied by a damping factor of an exponential decay.

Types of damping are: viscous and hysteretic damping. Viscous damping depends on frequency. The damping force of Coulomb damping is constant. Solid damping or hysteretic damping is caused by internal friction when a solid is deformed. Its size is related to the amplitude of stress.

Damping factors over ten are acceptable with numbers in the 50-100 range being a good average, but you may sometimes see numbers as high as 200 or 300 or even up into the low thousands.