How do you find the period of a trigonometric function?
The period of a trigonometric function is closely related to the frequency of the function. They are related but not the exact same thing.
Period vs Frequency: The difference between the period and the frequency of a trigonometric function is that the frequency is how fast a period is happening and a period defines how often a period happens.
$f(s+p)=f(s)$
For the smallest value of s, is what defines a set period of the function given.
Let's take a look at a simple sin(x)
graph between $-\pi$ and $\pi$.
You can take the same graph from a different perspective let's say from $0$ to $2\pi$.
As you can see it's the same graph. You can now define that this graph requires a full $2\pi$ length to complete a full period.
$0\ to\ \frac { 2\pi}{ b } $ where b
is always the absolute value.
Let's stretch the wave with a smaller frequency. For example 1/2
.
$sin(\frac{1}{2}x)$
The graph would look like this.
If you work through the algebra.
$y=Asin(Bx-C)+D$
You will end up with a period of $4\pi$ and a frequency of $\frac {1}{2}$
Just to compare with a basic sin wave.
The red and black line defines a complete period for the graph of $sin(\frac{1}{2}x)$ and the purple and blue line define the period for just the standard $sin(x)$ function.