Oscilloscopes
The oscilloscope was developed over 50 years ago. As a piece of test equipment, it was one of the most exciting advances in electrical testing at that time and still is. Ordinary analog and digital meters merely give numerical quantities, whereas the oscilloscope does that and in addition, gives a graphic picture of what the test signal looks like. The shapes, frequencies, amplitudes, phases, distortions, interference, and so on, all show up to be examined. One cycle or less of an AC signal, or multiple cycles, or even a stream of cycles can be examined. DC levels and combinations of DC and AC can be viewed.