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The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the SI unit of Frequency . Its base unit is cycle/s or s-1 (also called inverse seconds, reciprocal seconds). In English, ''hertz'' is used as both singular and plural. As any SI unit, Hz can be Prefixed ; commonly used multiples are kHz (kilohertz, 103 Hz), MHz (megahertz, 106 Hz), GHz (gigahertz, 109 Hz) and THz (terahertz, 1012 Hz). One hertz simply means ''one per Second '' (typically that which is being counted is a complete ''cycle''); 100 Hz means ''one hundred per second'', and so on. The unit may be applied to any periodic event—for example, a clock might be said to tick at 1 Hz, or a human heart might be said to Beat at 1.2 Hz. The frequencies of aperiodic events, such as radioactive decay, are expressed in Becquerel s. To avoid confusion, periodically varying angles are typically ''not'' expressed in hertz, but rather in an appropriate angular unit such as Radian s per second. A disc rotating at 1 revolution per minute (RPM) can thus be said to be rotating at 0.105 rad/s ''or'' 0.017 Hz, where the latter reflects the number of ''complete'' revolutions per second. The conversion between Hz and rad/s is rad/s = 1 Hz × 2 . HISTORY The hertz is named after the (''Conférence générale des poids et mesures'') in 1960, replacing the previous name for the unit, ''cycles per second'' (cps), along with its related multiples, primarily ''kilocycles per second'' (kc/s) and ''megacycles per second'' (Mc/s). The term ''cycles per second'' was largely replaced by ''hertz'' by the 1970s.'' The term “gigahertz”, most commonly used in computer processor speed and Radio Frequency (RF) applications, can be pronounced either , with a hard sound or or , with a soft sound at the beginning of the word. The prefix “giga-” is derived directly from the Greek “” and hence the preferred pronunciation is . Some electrical engineers use , by analogy with “gigantic”. APPLICATIONS Vibration Sound is a traveling wave which is an oscillation of Pressure . Humans perceive frequency of sound waves as Pitch . Each musical Note corresponds to a particular frequency which can be measured in hertz. Although the human ear is able to perceive frequencies ranging from 16 Hz to 20,000 Hz at the age of a baby, the average human can hear sounds between 20 Hz and 15,000 Hz. The range of Ultrasound and other physical vibrations such as Molecular Vibration s extends into the megahertz and well beyond. Electromagnetic radiation Electromagnetic Radiation is often described by its frequency—the number of Oscillation s of the perpendicular electric and magnetic fields per Second —expressed in hertz. .) Computing In computing, most CPU s are labeled in terms of their clock speed expressed in megahertz or gigahertz (109 hertz). The number of megahertz refers to the frequency of the CPU's Master Clock Signal ("clock speed"). This signal is simply an electrical voltage which changes from low to high and back again at regular intervals. Hertz has become the primary unit of measurement used by the general populace to determine the speed of a CPU , but many experts have criticized this approach, which they claim is an easily manipulable benchmark. Good Riddance, Gigahertz For home-based personal computers, the CPU has ranged from approximately 1 megahertz in the late 1970s (Atari, Commodore, Apple computers) to nearly 4000 megahertz for modern-day Macintosh and PC machines. Various Computer Bus es, such as memory buses connecting the CPU and system RAM , also transfer data using clock signals operating at different frequencies in the megahertz ranges (for modern products). Frequencies not expressed in hertz Even higher frequencies are believed to occur naturally, in the frequencies of the quantum-mechanical Wave Function s of high-energy (or, equivalently, massive) particles, although these are not directly observable, and must be inferred from their interactions with other phenomena. For practical reasons, these are typically not expressed in hertz, but in terms of the equivalent energy. REFERENCES SEE ALSO |
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