ZachPaine

GraphingTrigonometricFunctions

Asinewaveisacurverepresentingperiodicoscillationsofconstantamplitudeasgiven
byasinefunction.Inmoresimpleterms,asinewaveisamathematicalcurvethatdescribesa
smoothandrepetitiveoscillation.Oscillationismovementbackandforthataregularspeed.Sine
wavesareatrigonometricsynonymoftheword,sinusoid,whichistheactualgraphofthesine
function.Nowthatweknowthetermsanddefinitionsinvolvedinthesubject,wemaybeginto
discussthemathportion.
Themostbasicformofasinewavefunctionoftimeisthis:

Thisequationmightlookalittlebitdauntingbutwellgooverwhateachvariablemeans
soyoucanfurtherunderstandtheconcept.
A
=Amplitude.Amplitudeisthepeakdeviationofthefunctionfromzero.
f
=theactualfrequency,thenumberofcycles,oroscillationsthatoccureachsecond

=2
f,
whichistheangularfrequency.Angularmeanshavinganglesorsharpcorners.
Soangularfrequencyistherateofchangeofthefunctioninunitsofradianspersecond.

thephase.Thissymbolspecifiesinradianswhereinitscycletheoscillationisat

t=0.
Nowlet'slookatthemostbasicsinefunctiononagraph,
f(t)=sin(t)
:


Ithasanamplitudeof1becausethegraphgoes1unitupand1unitdownfromthemidline(of
thegraph).Thisfunctionhasaperiodof2becausethesinewaverepeatsevery2units.

Hereisthegraphof
g
(
t
)=3
sin
(
t
):

Thisgraphis3timesastallasthelastsoithasanamplitudeof3.

Thesearejustacoupleofexamplesofsinewavegraphing.Butthatsnotatallwherethe
funends,sinewavesareevenusedinphysicsandmusic.Theyplayahugeroleintheproduction
ofmusicbecauseasinewavehasthesoftesttonetoitcomparedtoothersoundwaves(eg.saw

wave,squarewave,etc.).Sinewavesareusedinalmosteverysongyouhearbecausetheyare
suchversatiletoolsintheproducingworld.Theyaremainlyusedasbasesbecauseofhowgood
andrichtheysoundatlowoctavesbutevenathigheroctavestheycanbeimplemented
effectivelyintosongsifdonecorrectly.
Thiswasacooltopictolearnaboutbecauseitdoesntjustapplytomathematics,but
somethingthatisquitedeartome,music.Thankyouforreading.