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Is one oscillation from peak to trough to peak again or is it just peak to trough? Doing a homework question and want to be sure I have the right definition

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  • $\begingroup$ In more general usage a "period" is a property of an oscillation (others are ampliture, timbre (relative sizes of superposition weights in a Fourier expansion) and epoch or phase). The usage you show is not precise and the question needs tightening up. My guess is that it would likely refer to the full period - that's how I would read it - but if you interpreted as the half period (peak to trough), then you could not be faulted as clearly to use "oscillation" in this way is not precise. $\endgroup$
    – Selene Routley
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 0:12
  • $\begingroup$ "One oscillation" of a smoothly periodic waveform would be one full cycle, starting at any point (peak, trough, uphill zero crossing, downhill zero crossing, or anywhere in-between) and ending at the next equivalent point. The distance between these points (the "length" of the oscillation) is the "period". $\endgroup$
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 0:52
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    $\begingroup$ Someone who uses "oscillation" in a homework question when they mean "period" or "complete cycle" is not doing their students a favor. Even if it might be deduced that they are intended to be equivalent. Precise language is the hallmark of clarity in thought. $\endgroup$
    – Floris
    Commented Apr 3, 2015 at 1:11

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Is one oscillation from peak to trough to peak again or is it just peak to trough?

This is a definition issue.

An internet search through some of the free dictionaries out there gives (link):

Physics.
a. an effect expressible as a quantity that repeatedly and regularly fluctuates above and below some mean value, as the pressure of a sound wave or the voltage of an alternating current.
b. a single fluctuation between maximum and minimum values in such an effect.

And (link):

1. (General Physics) physics statistics
a. regular fluctuation in value, position, or state about a mean value, such as the variation in an alternating current or the regular swinging of a pendulum.
b. a single cycle of such a fluctuation

It has two meanings in physics: "an oscillation" can mean the very act that something is "swinging" in general. But about the other meaning, it seems the two sources do not entirely agree if "an oscillation" is between maximum and minimum or if it is a single cycle (that is, from maximum to maximum).

We are close to the answer, but a proper place for such a question would rather be https://english.stackexchange.com/

Is an oscillation the same as a period?

Your title is another question. And the answer is no.

The word "period" means something very specific, and is not the same thing as an oscillation in either meaning. A "period" is not the act of swinging, but the time for a complete cycle of the oscillation (from maximum to maximum). Usually denoted $T$ with units of seconds (or seconds per cycle if you like).

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Honoring the complex alternatives, here is a simple one: I would say, oscillation means a period of a periodical system in time.

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