basic question in signals

[Bhuvanesh123]

Is there any difference between sin and sinusoidal signal? or are they same.Thank you

 

[Ogu Reginald]

For me, I think sin, sine or sinusoidal signals are the same. Sin and sine are just short names of making reference to sinusoidal signals.

 

[FvM]

Technically it's the same thing, the difference is a matter of language nuances, I believe.
A sine is a mathematical function. A signal can't be exactly a sine, it can have a sine shape, be sinusoidal.

 

[yavuzyaman]

As far as I know, the term "sinusoidal" covers the cosine and sine functions. It stresses the shape of sinus, even it is phase shifted or not. So sin and sine are same, but sinusoidal is kind of general expression.

 

[Ogu Reginald]

Let us check this and compare with our answers, we are almost saying the same thing but on different tones.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sine_wave

 

[treez]

sin usually refers to the mathematical operation of taking the sine of an angle (opp/hyp)
And of course the sinusoid is the purest of waveforms, being produced by a phasor rotating at constant angular velocity...that is why sinusoidal signals never get used in alarm clocks, because its so smooth you may not wake up.

 

[ads-ee]

that is why sinusoidal signals never get used in alarm clocks, because its so smooth you may not wake up.

Interesting claim so I did a quick search and came up with a news report on a study done in Austraila, which seems to confirm what treez is alluding to.
Not sure if newer alarm clocks use anything but those single tone chirps that the old ones used, which is why I use a repeated pattern of a very irritating sound that is not a single tone chirp for an alarm. I used to use one of those ones with the bells on top until it died. :-(

https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/10/02/2379419.htm