Question - What is crest factor?

Answer - Crest factor is the ratio of the peak value to the RMS value. Thus, crest factor specifies the dynamic range of a true RMS instrument.

• For sinusoidal waveforms, the crest factor is 1.414.
• For a symmetrical square wave the crest factor is unity.
• The crest factor of a rectangular pulse is related to its duty cycle; as the duty cycle decreases the crest factor increases.