Frequency is a term used to describe waves in nature. There are waves in an ocean. Then there are sound waves and then there are light waves. All these waves rise and fall. Waves come and go. They don't stand still. You can see the picture below.

How quickly these waves come one after the other is called frequency. The more waves you see in a given amount of time, say in 1 minute or in 1 hour, then "more" is their frequency. So a frequency is the number of waves you see in 1 sec.

If you have a stop watch and you are standing in the sea you can count the number of waves that hit you in 1 sec. Then that number is the frequency of waves at that time of the day.

kavitha_grade1 - Friday, March 07, 2008 8:33:33 AM

Meaning of frequency

frequency is a term used to describe waves in nature. There are all kinds of waves in nature. some you can see and some you can't. Some you can feel and some you can't.

There are waves in an ocean. There are ripples in a lake. These waves you can see and feel.

There are then the sound waves. The "boom" "boom" that you hear from a boom box seem to come in waves rising, falling, and then rising again. These you can't see with your eye but you can hear with your ears. A very low frequency high energy sound wave you can feel it on your skin. An ear is nothing but a specially tuned skin to respond to these vibrations called sound waves.

Then there are waves that you can't feel or see (in a sense). These are light waves. Sometimes these are also called radio waves.

All waves have something in common. They rise and fall. How high they rise is called amplitude of a wave. How quickly they come one after the other like in an ocean is called frequency. How far apart the two waves in an ocean one behind the other is called wave length or the length of a wave.

In music, having been related to sound, the frequency of a sound wave is often called the pitch. So a high pitch means a sound that sounds like a baby crying. A shrill or a shriek. A low pitch means something that sounds like a rumble or a thunder.