Graphing Sine Waves

What does changing the frequency and amplitude of a sine wave do? Let us first explore what a sine wave is to figure this out. The most basic sine wave in math is:

y = sin(x)

To change the amplitude of a sine wave or increase the distance between the Sinusoidal axis and the maximum/minimum point of the wave, you can multiply the sine function by the desired amount, as shown below.

y = 2 sin(x)

To change the frequency of a sine wave, or the distance between each lobe of the wave, you can multiply the input value by a given number.

y = sin(2x)

You can experiment below with the amplitude and frequency to see what it would look like with a different setting. The graph's x-axis is locked so you can see how your sine wave compares to the base sine wave. Hopefully, this will help you understand how amplitude and frequency change a sine wave.

- Function Settings -

Amplitude:
Frequency:

Create Graph | Clear Graph

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