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Sound: Oscilloscope Traces

An oscilloscope is a voltmeter that shows how electrical signals vary in a visual way. It plots voltage agains time graphs for you on a screen.

It can be used o show 'sound waveforms'. You need to translate the sound energy into electrical energy to do this. A transducer such as a microphone is connected to the oscilloscope input. This changes sound energy into electrical energy and shows the variations of voltage on the screen.

  • In sound : high frequency means high pitch of note (lots of waveforms on the screen), low frequency (few waveforms) means low pitch of note (deep note).
  • In sound: big amplitude means loud note, small amplitude means quiet note (not low as this can be used for pitch too) note.