howto:hambasics:temp
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- | * the **amplitude** is the **vertical** height from the centre of the wave to its highest (or lowest) point. | + | * the //amplitude// is the vertical height from the centre of the wave to its highest (or lowest) point. |
- | * the **wavelength** is the **horizontal** distance of one full cycle. | + | * the //wavelength// is the horizontal distance of one full cycle. |
+ | Now imagine that the animation is in super slow motion and that the waves are actually travelling at the speed of light, which is roughly 300,000,000 metres per second: How many times does each dot go up and down in one second? | ||
+ | Another way of asking that question is: how many full cycles can you fit in 300,000,000 metres (since radio waves travel 300,000,000 metres each second). | ||
+ | * Since the blue wave has a wavelength of 2m, it'll take 150,000,000 cycles to reach 300,000,000 metres. | ||
+ | * Similarly, since the green wave has a wavelength of 6m, its frequency is 50 Mhz. | ||
- | All EM waves (radio, light, etc) in vacuum travel at the speed, which is roughly 300, | + | So a quick way to relate the frequency $f$ (in MHz) and the wavelength $\lambda$ (in metres): |
- | Look at the following two waves. | + | < |
- | {{wave1.png? | + | Note that the reason we're using just 300, instead of 300,000,000 is that we've cancelled 6 of the zeros so that the frequency is in MHz instead of in Hz. |
- | At first sight: | + | Now, here's a related question: how long does it take for each wave to complete |
- | - the first one is " | + | |
- | - the first one is also " | + | |
- | These two observations can be quantified very precisely as: | + | * For the blue wave, we know that it oscillates 150,000,000 times / second, so only one of those time would take 150, |
- | - the // | + | * Similarly, the green wave oscillates at 50,000,000 cycles per second, so only one of those cycle would take $\frac{1}{50, |
- | | + | |
- | {{ wave3.png | + | The time to complete one full cycle is called the //period (T)// and is the reciprocal of the frequency: |
- | So the previous two waves have: | + | < |
- | - Amplitude | + | |
- | - Amplitude | + | |
- | {{wave1.png? | ||
- | The amplitude is normally related to the strength of the signal (like the volume for sound). | ||
- | Since the period (//T//) is the amount of time it takes to complete one cycle, and the frequency (//f//) is the number of cycles in one second, the period and the frequency are inverses of each other: | ||
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- | < | ||
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- | <box 80% blue> | ||
- | In this course, we'll see a few formulas and it'll be tempting to memorize them but let's instead understand what they really mean... | ||
- | </ | ||
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- | For example: | ||
- | * if the period is half a second, we can fit 2 full cycles in one second. | ||
- | * If the period is a quarter of a second, the frequency is 4. | ||
- | * If the period is a tenth of a second, the frequency is 10. | ||
- | * If the period is T seconds, the frequency is $\frac{1}{T}$ ( $\frac{1}{0.5} = 2, \quad \frac{1}{0.25} = 4, \quad \frac{1}{0.1} = 10$ ) | ||
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- | Right? | ||
- | |||
- | So for the previous two waves, the frequencies would be: | ||
- | * < | ||
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- | * < | ||
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- | Recall that //Hz// means "cycle per seconds" | ||
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- | Let's now look at three different ways to encode a signal on a radio wave. | ||
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- | FIXME: add $f=\frac{c}{\lambda}$ | ||