Tag: What does phase of a signal measure?

The Amplitude is the height from the center line to the peak (or to the trough) . Or we can measure the height from highest to lowest points and divide that by 2. The Phase Shift is how far the function is shifted horizontally from the usual position.

The phase is another measurement of a wave and refers to the point where a wave is in a cycle . It is measured in degrees (0°-360°) or radians (0-2π) and is denoted with the Greek symbol Phi (ϕ). Figure 1.3. Different points in the phase of a sine wave.

A phase measurement is a relative (ratio) measurement and not an absolute measurement. Phase measurements compare the phase of the signal going into a device (the incident signal) to the phase of the device’s response signal . The response signal can be either reflected or transmitted.

Calculating Phase Shift Dividing the frequency into 1 gives the period, or duration of each cycle, so 1/100 gives a period of 0.01 seconds. The phase shift equation is ps = 360 * td / p , where ps is the phase shift in degrees, td is the time difference between waves and p is the wave period.