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Asked by lucasjacobs to Meeks, Pete, Stephen, Steve, Tom on 19 Jun 2010 in Categories: General.
Question: What is oscillating!?
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Tom Hartley answered on 18 Jun 2010:
Yes, we all put this in one of our earlier answers without explaining. It means “going up and down” or “going round and round”.
Oscillations and waves are pretty important in many areas of science – for example in brain imaging we look at oscillating electrical and magnetic signals produced by brain cells in action. These are also known as brain waves.
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Marieke Navin answered on 18 Jun 2010:
oooh good question.
It could be a pendulum moving back and forwards.
Or it could be quantum mechanical (maths). So for example there are 3 different types of neutrinos – electron, muon and tau types. But when a neutrino is created – for example an electron flavour neutrino in the sun – it isn’t entirely electron type. It’s a bit muon and tau as well. It’s got a bit of an identity crisis! As neutrinos travel across space they “oscillate” by this we mean change from one flavour to another. It’s all described by some maths.
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Stephen Curry answered on 19 Jun 2010:
An oscillation is a regular, repeated change in some quantity. In the simplest case the size (amplitude) and frequency of the change are constant. It could be the level of the sea at a certain place (due to a passing wave) or the light emitted in a particular direction from a light-house.
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