Pulses Per Second (pps)

A count of how many pulses a device delivers each second. It is often written as if it were the same thing as Frequency in Hertz, and for a one-directional pulse it is: one pulse, one cycle, one Hertz. A bipolar pulse is where the two part company, because it swings one way and then the other, and a reader has to know whether the count is of complete pulses or of the individual swings. Clinical electrotherapy settled this: the two swings are the two phases of a single pulse, phase duration and pulse duration are named separately for that reason, and the pulse rate counts whole pulses. So a device delivering 20 alternating swings each second is running 10 complete bipolar pulses per second, which is 10 Hz, and describing the same device as 20 pps counts phases rather than pulses. Gauss Labs reports the measured repetition rate of the complete waveform, so the number on the report is the rate at which the pattern repeats, whatever a specification sheet calls it. See Frequency (Hz) and Bipolar Pulse. See also Phase.