Q. What do you mean by Oscilloscope?

To measure time-varying signals (voltages and currents), an instrument known as an oscilloscope is employed. It can be used as a practical electronic voltmeter which displays a graph of voltage as a function of time. Such a display allows one not only to read off the voltage at any instant of time, but also to observe the general behavior of the voltage as a function of time. The horizontal and vertical scales of the display are set by the oscilloscope's controls, such as 5 ms per each horizontal division and 50 V per each vertical division. For periodic waveforms, the moving light spot repeatedly graphs the same repetitive shape, and the stationary waveform is seen. For nonperiodic cases, a common way of handling is to cause the oscilloscope tomake only one single graph, representing the voltage over a single short time period. This is known as single-sweep operation. Since the display lasts for only a very short time, it may be photographed for later inspection.

Digital meters are generallymore accurate and can be equipped withmore scales and broader ranges than analog meters. On the other hand, analogmeters are generally less expensive and give an entire range or scale of reading, which often could be very informative. A digital oscilloscope represents the combination of analog and digital technologies. By digital sampling techniques, the oscilloscope trace is digitized and stored in the digital memory included with the digital oscilloscope. Digital oscilloscopes are generallymore costly than analog ones, but their capability in the analysis and processing of signals is vastly superior.