Introduction

Waves are all around us. Sine waves are everywhere - an ocean wave, vibrations in the earth's crust caused by earthquakes, soundwaves through air, and many other examples. Electromagnetic waves such as light, radio and micro-waves and other invisible forces pervade our physical universe. If we wish to study these waves we need to convert them to an electrical signal. Oscilloscopes enable scientists, engineers, technicians, and others to visualise events that change over time. Oscilloscopes convert the time varying signals into a voltage and are indispensable tools for anyone designing, manufacturing or repairing electronic equipment.

This experiment builds on your previous skills experience in Circuits 1. The aims of this experiment is to introduce you to the use of alternating voltages, to teach you how to measure them as well as how simple resistors and capacitors behave when excited by a time varying voltage. In particular, you will investigate the frequency response of these so-called RC circuits to different time-varying voltages.