Hi,

If I were to read the frequency of a wall socket it would be 60 Hertz. Would it have a duty cycle of 50%?

Thanks

 

Yes. The signal is supposed to be a pure sine wave. The picture of its frequency spectrum would be a delta-function at 60Hz. If the duty cycle was not 50% it would not be a pure sine wave.

 

Thanks for the info.

 

I don't know that the term "duty cycle" even applies here. 50% duty cycle means 50% on and 50% off. That's not what's happening with a sine wave.

 

A pure sine wave has a 50% duty cycle because exactly 50% of it is positive and exactly 50% of it is negative. If its duty cycle was different then it would not be 50-50 and it would have even-numbered harmonics.