Oscilloscope

The oscilloscope is probably the most important research instrument for studying electrical circuits. Here you will use it to monitor how a rapidly changing voltage varies with time. The great flexibility of the oscilloscope means that there are a lot of knobs and buttons to select how you will make your measurements. Don't worry about trying to figure them all out in your first experience with an oscilloscope. The annotated pictures show oscilloscopes, one of which you will use in this experiment, and point out just those controls you'll need.

Function Generator

The function generator produces a periodic voltage whose frequency and amplitude you can select. In this experiment you will use one of the function generators shown in the annotated pictures. Though it can also produce a "sine wave" voltage or a "triangle wave" voltage, in this experiment you will use only the "square wave" from the "Main" output. The function generator also produces a square-wave TTL or "Sync" output which you may use to trigger the sweeping of the oscilloscope trace.