Question

A stroboscope is set to flash every 8 x 10^-5 s. What is the frequency of the flashes?

Short answer

The frequency of the flashes is 12500 Hz.

Step-by-step solution

Identification of the given data

The time period of the stroboscope is, T = 8 x 10^-5 s

Expression for frequency

The expression for the frequency depends on the time period of the event and it is given as follows,

\({\bf{f = }}\frac{{\bf{1}}}{{\bf{T}}}\)

Here, T is the time period.

Determination of frequency

Substitute all the values in the above expression.

\[\begin{aligned}f &= \frac{1}{{8 \times {{10}^{ - 5}}\;{\rm{s}}}}\\ &= 12500\;{{\rm{s}}^{ - 1}} \times \frac{{1\;{\rm{Hz}}}}{{{{\rm{s}}^{ - 1}}}}\\ &= 12500\;{\rm{Hz}}\end{aligned}\]

Thus, the frequency is 12500 Hz.