A period is the time required for what?

• A. One complete cycle
• B. One half cycle
• C. One second
• D. One millisecond

Answer: (A)

The period is the time it takes for one complete cycle of a periodic waveform to occur. That means starting at a given point in the cycle, the waveform goes through all its phases and returns to the same state after one full oscillation. The period depends on frequency, with T = 1/f, so it can be any amount of time depending on how fast the waveform repeats. A half cycle would be only half of that duration, not the full cycle. The exact value could be 1 second for a 1 Hz signal, or 0.002 seconds for a 500 Hz signal, etc. Therefore, the time for one complete cycle is the period.