| Before we
answer that question, let's keep in mind what exactly we are measuring.
Everyone taking this class has touched a part of an operating machine (even
if it is your car or even your lawn mower) and felt the back and forth
movement. Because that movement is back and forth, it is defined as "cyclical",
or "sinusoidal", and we call it "vibration". Obviously, we would want to
quantify the amount of movement. That measurement is known as "amplitude".
However, there are several different ways of quantifying the amount and
that is what we will discuss in the following pages. |
