Oscilloscope

What the oscilloscope adds is time: it plots voltage against time, so the shape, peak value, period and frequency of a signal can be read from the screen using the volts-per-division and time-per-division settings. In the community it is used to compare a transformer's primary and secondary, see the output of rectifiers and clipping circuits, watch capacitors charge, and check the frequency of oscillators and 555 timers. For example, "Full wave bridge rectifier" displays the AC input and the rectified, smoothed output of a diode bridge.