Period | Physics - Encyclopedia Britannica

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period, in physics, the interval of time it takes for a motion to repeat. Such motion is called periodic motion and is performed, for example, by a rocking chair, a bouncing ball, a vibrating tuning fork, a swing in motion, Earth in its orbit around the Sun, and a water wave. Thus, the period of Earth’s orbit is one year. A tuning fork might have a period of 1 millisecond (1 thousandth of a second). The symbol most often used to represent the period is T.

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The frequency of periodic motion is the reciprocal of the period—that is, frequency = 1/period = 1/(time interval). The frequency with which the Moon revolves around Earth is slightly more than 12 cycles per year. The frequency of the A string of a violin is 440 vibrations or cycles per second. One cycle per second is equal to one hertz. This means that sound waves with high frequencies have short periods, while those with low frequencies have long periods. For example, a sound wave with a frequency of 20 hertz would have a period of 0.05 second (i.e., 20 wavelengths/second × 0.05 second/wavelength = 1), while a sound wave of 20 kilohertz would have a period of 0.00005 second (20,000 wavelengths/second × 0.00005 second/wavelength = 1).

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Erik Gregersen.