Article
Article
Nonsinusoidal waveform
Article By:
Robertson, Burtis L. Formerly, University of California, Berkeley, California.
Pritchett, Wilson S. Formerly, Noller Control Systems Inc., Richmond, California.
Last reviewed:June 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.456000
The representation of a wave that does not vary in a pure sinusoidal manner. Electric circuits containing nonlinear elements, such as iron-core magnetic devices, rectifying devices, and transistors, commonly produce nonsinusoidal currents and voltages. When these are repetitive functions of time, they are called nonsinusoidal periodic electric waves. Oscillograms, tabulated data, and sometimes mathematical functions for segments of such waves are often used to describe the variation through one cycle. The term cycle corresponds to 2π electrical radians and covers the period, which is the time interval T in seconds in which the wave repeats itself.
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