frankinafishtank Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 I have a table with data of temperature over the years. It is a periodic function since the temperature increases during the summer and decreases in the winter.I am now going to use this formula to create a cosine wave : y = a sin (bx+c)I am going to find y and i have the rest of the values.But how do i find a (the amplitude) in the table of data?Is it simply the highest value or is there a formula to find it?Keep in mind i dont have the graph yet because that is what i am going to create.Thanks for any help Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Summer Glau Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 The formula for amplitude of a sine/cosine function is (maximum-minimum)/2. So take your lowest y-value and subtract it from your highest y-value. Then, divide that result by 2. So in your case, it would be (highest temperature - lowest temperature)/2. (assuming you're putting temperature on the y axis).What you're doing by calculating the amplitude is getting the distance from the principal axis to either the highest or lowest point on the sine/cosine wave. Hope this helps. I'll clarify if what I said was unclear Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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