What is Period (PER)?

Period (PER) is how long it takes for something to do one full cycle or repeat itself, like a heartbeat or a pendulum swing.

Imagine you're on a swing at the park. You go forward, then backward, and that’s one complete cycle. The time it takes to go from your highest point forward, all the way back to where you started is the period of the swing. If you count how many times you swing back and forth in 10 seconds, you can figure out how long each swing, or period, lasts.

Think about a clock. The second hand takes one full cycle every 60 seconds. That means the period of the second hand is 60 seconds. If it were slower, like on a grandfather clock, the period would be longer, because each swing takes more time.

So whether you're swinging at the park or watching a clock tick, period is just the time it takes for one complete repeat, and that’s pretty simple to understand!