 Root mean square phasor

A root mean square phasor represents a single-frequency sinusoid by a complex amplitude whose magnitude is its root mean square value. With the convention $v(t)=V_{\mathrm{pk}}\cos (\omega t+\varphi )$ and $\omega >0$, defineIndeed, the period average of $v^2$ is $V_{\mathrm{pk}}^2/2$, so $|\underline{V}|=V_{\mathrm{rms}}$. The factor $\sqrt{2}$ in reconstruction distinguishes this convention from the peak-amplitude phasor convention in the parent article. The DOE handbook derives the same effective value by comparing the heating from alternating current and direct current.^[ref]

Using RMS phasors for both electric potential difference and electric current, the passive-sign convention gives complex electrical powerTo see the normalization directly, multiplying the two reconstructed sinusoids and averaging over a period leaves $P=\mathrm{Re}(\underline{V}{\underline{I}}^{\ast })$. Peak-amplitude phasors would instead require the prefactor $1/2$. This peak-versus-RMS normalization in complex electrical power must be stated before combining a source model with measured amplitudes.

For an original example, let $\underline{V}=10e^{i0}\mathrm{V}$ and $\underline{I}=2e^{-i\pi /3}\mathrm{A}$. The electric current lags the electric potential difference by $60^{\circ }$, givingThe corresponding time-domain peaks are $10\sqrt{2}\mathrm{V}$ and $2\sqrt{2}\mathrm{A}$. Treating those peaks as RMS phasor magnitudes would falsely double the computed complex electrical power. This representation assumes a sinusoid at one common frequency; a nonsinusoidal signal can have a root mean square value without being represented by one RMS phasor.