The scope of this article is to introduce a method to measure the power factor in a 50 Hz alternating current transient. The circuit shall be a R-L type. By acquiring only the current wave and, ...

Oscilloscopes measure current and voltage and, through the magic of mathematics, calculate power. Unfortunately, power comes in a large number of guises: instantaneous, real, apparent, and reactive.

A team of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers recently put out a white paper explaining why power factor correction type devices actually provide no savings to consumers.