Engineers use an oscilloscope (also referred to informally as an oscope) to design, manufacture or repair electronic equipment to verify that a device is working properly.

An oscilloscope reconstructs electrical signals using three systems—vertical, horizontal and trigger—which work together to gather information about the electrical signal, so the oscilloscope can graphically display those signals.

An oscilloscope measures voltage waves by capturing physical phenomena such as vibrations or temperature, or electrical phenomena such as current or power with a sensor. The oscilloscope then converts that signal into a waveform and graphically displays it where the horizontal axis represents time and the vertical axis represents voltage.

An oscilloscope measures voltage waves, but it can also be used to measure current, resistance, sound, capacitance, frequency and more.

Most oscilloscopes measure frequency automatically, but you can also use a simple equation (frequency=1/period) and the horizontal scale on your oscilloscope to measure frequency manually.

You can use an oscilloscope to measure current by measuring the voltage dropped across a shunt resistor or by using a current probe.