You
period is also named cycle, and frequency is 1/period, which is how much time it takes for one cycle
Claude
Clarifying the relationship between period and frequency.
Almost. You have the formula right, but two words are slightly mixed up.
Cycle is the thing: one complete repetition of the wave (up, down, back to start). Period is the time that one cycle takes, measured in seconds. For 50 Hz mains, the period is 20 ms. Frequency is how many cycles happen per second, measured in Hz. For mains, that’s 50 Hz.
So it’s the period that tells you how much time one cycle takes, not the frequency. Frequency tells you how many cycles fit into one second.
They’re just two views of the same thing, which is why frequency = 1 / period works:
- Period 20 ms → frequency = 1 ÷ 0.02 s = 50 Hz
- Frequency 50 Hz → period = 1 ÷ 50 = 0.02 s = 20 ms
A simple analogy: if a bus comes every 20 minutes (period), then 3 buses come per hour (frequency). Same schedule, described two ways.
And this works for your sampling rate too: 8 kHz means 8,000 samples per second, so the time between samples (the “sampling period”) is 1 ÷ 8,000 = 0.125 ms.