University of Auckland/Department of Physics/Physics 102/Period

Bold text The time to complete one oscillation remains constant and is called the Period T, usually in units of seconds

Units
The period has units of seconds, milliseconds, nanoseconds, kiloseconds

How is it related to frequency
T = 1/f

T being the period in seconds (or milliseconds, etc) f being the frequency in Hertz

A. A Period is the time it takes for one complete vibration, oscillation, or cycle to move past a fixed point.

Mass on a Spring
Q. What does the period depend on? (Hint try experimenting wit the Mass Spring Simulation)

A. In lecture we determined that a smaller mass oscillates with a shorter period and larger mass oscillates with a longer period.

Q. How does the frequency depend on the mass?

A. The frequencey depends on how heavy an object is attached to the spring. The greater the mass on a spring the slower the frequency and the smaller the mass the greater the frequency.

FYI
Heres a link thats like an online interactive textbook. Will answer any questions you might have..: http://www.glenbrook.k12.il.us/gbssci/phys/Class/waves/wavestoc.html (dhic014)