Sine wave

A sine wave or sinusoid is a waveform whose graph is identical to the generalized sine function

Related Topics:
Waveform - Graph - Sine

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:y = Asin + C

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where A is the amplitude, ω is the angular frequency (2π/P where P is the wavelength), α is the phase shift, and C is the vertical offset.

Related Topics:
Amplitude - Angular frequency - Wavelength - Phase

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This wave pattern occurs often in nature, including in ocean waves, sound waves, and light waves.

Related Topics:
Wave - Ocean waves - Sound - Light

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A cosine wave is also said to be sinusoidal, since it has the same shape but is shifted slightly behind the sine wave on the horizontal axis: cos{(x -rac{pi}{2})} = sin{x}

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Any non-sinusoidal waveforms, such as square waves or even the irregular sound waves made by human speech, are actually a collection of sinusoidal waves of different periods and frequencies blended together. The technique of transforming a complex waveform into its sinusoidal components is called Fourier analysis.

Related Topics:
Non-sinusoidal - Square wave - Speech - Period - Frequencies - Fourier analysis

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The human ear can recognize single sine waves because they sound "clean" or "clear" to us; some sounds that approximate a pure sine wave are whistling, a crystal glass set to vibrate by running a wet finger around its rim, and the sound made by a tuning fork.

Related Topics:
Ear - Whistling - Crystal glass - Tuning fork

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To the human ear, a sound that is made up of more than one sine wave will either sound "noisy" or will have detectable harmonics.

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