AMPLITUDE

A sine wave is used to represent values of electrical current or voltage. The greater its height, the greater the value it represents. As you have studied, a sine wave alternately rises above and then falls below the reference line. That part above the line represents a positive value and is referred to as a POSITIVE ALTERNATION. That part of the cycle below the line has a negative value and is referred to as a NEGATIVE ALTERNATION. The maximum value, above or below the reference line, is called the PEAK AMPLITUDE. The value at any given point along the reference line is called the INSTANTANEOUS AMPLITUDE.

PHASE

PHASE or PHASE ANGLE indicates how much of a cycle has been completed at any given instant. This merely describes the angle that exists between the starting point of the vector and its position at that instant. The number of degrees of vector rotation and the number of degrees of the resultant sine wave that have been completed will be the same. For example, at time position 2 of figure 1-3, the vector has rotated to 60 degrees and 60 degrees of the resultant sine wave has been completed. Therefore, both are said to have an instantaneous phase angle of 60 degrees.

FREQUENCY

The rate at which the vector rotates determines the FREQUENCY of the sine wave that is generated; that is, the faster the vector rotates, the more cycles completed in a given time period. The basic time period used is 1 second. If a vector completes one revolution per 1 second, the resultant sine wave has a frequency 1 cycle per second (1 hertz). If the rate of rotation is increased to 1,000 revolutions per second, the frequency of the sine wave generated will be 1,000 cycles per second (1 kilohertz).

PERIOD

Another term that is important in the discussion of a sine wave is its duration, or PERIOD. The period of a cycle is the elapsed time from the beginning of a cycle to its completion. If the vector shown in figure 1-3 were to make 1 revolution per second, each cycle of the resultant sine wave would have a period of 1 second. If it were rotating at a speed of 1,000 revolutions per second, each revolution would require 1/1,000 of a second and the period of the resultant sine wave would be 1/1,000 of a second. This illustrates that the period is related to the frequency. As the number of cycles completed in 1 second increases, the period of each cycle will decrease proportionally. This relationship is shown in the following formulas:

WAVELENGTH

The WAVELENGTH of a sine wave is determined by its physical length. During the period a wave is being generated, its leading edge is moving away from the source at 300,000,000 meters per second. The physical length of the sine wave is determined by the amount of time it takes to complete one full cycle. This wavelength is an important factor in determining the size of equipments used to generate and transmit radio frequencies.

To help you understand the magnitude of the distance a wavefront (the initial part of a wave) travels during 1 cycle, we will compute the wavelengths (l) of several frequencies. Consider a vector that rotates at 1 revolution per second. The resultant sine wave is transmitted into space by an antenna. As the vector moves from its 0-degree starting position, the wavefront begins to travel away from the antenna. When the vector reaches the 360-degree position, and the sine wave is completed, the sine wave is stretched out over 300,000,000 meters. The reason the sine wave is stretched over such a great distance is that the wavefront has been moving away from the antenna at 300,000,000 meters per second. This is shown in the following example:

If a vector were rotating at 1,000 revolutions per second, its period would be 0.001 second. By applying the formula for wavelength, you would find that the wavelength is 300,000 meters:

Since we normally know the frequency of a sine wave instead of its period, the wavelength is easier to find using the frequency:

Thus, for a sine wave with a frequency of 1,000,000 hertz (1 megahertz), the wavelength would be 300 meters, as shown below:

The higher the frequency, the shorter  the wavelength of a sine wave. This important relationship between frequency and wavelength is illustrated in table 1 - 1.

Table 1-1. - Radio frequency versus wavelength.

Q.9 What is the instantaneous amplitude of a sine wave?
Q.10 What term describes how much of a cycle has been completed?
Q.11 What determines the frequency of a sine wave?
Q.12 What is the period of a cycle?
Q.13 How do you calculate the wavelength of a sine wave?