Physics of Sound: Demonstrations

Parameters of harmonic oscillations

Harmonic oscillations are described by harmonic functions. The three parameters defining them are
  1. Amplitude;
  2. Period (or, equivalently, frequency)
  3. Phase.

One of the curves below is sine and another one is cosine. Changing the phase shifts these functions of time back and forth, so that sine becomes cosine and vice versa. Move all three sliders to see the effects of changing the parameters.


© Dmitry Garanin, 2012, powered by Wolfram Research