Here is a short little activity your can do on your own. Clench your fingers together and rap on the table one time per second. How much time elapses between each rap on the table? Now rap on the table two times per second. How much time elapses between each rap. Finally (if you can do it), rap on the table three times per second. How much time elapses between each rap.
You hopefully noticed the following pattern:
1 rap/second ---> 1 second between raps
2 raps/second ---> 1/2 seconds between raps
3 raps/second ---> 1/3 seconds between raps
For any periodic and repeating event, there are two quantities which describe the event which are reciprocals of each other. The number of occurrences per second and the time elapsed between occurrences are reciprocals of each other.
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