The phenomenon you are describing is called aliasing . The slowly repeating frequency of when the signals line up is called the beat frequency . While you might not recognize it at first, you can see other examples of these two phenomena every day: the slowly varying volume of two closely tuned guitar strings, the wavy lines in digital images of just the right(wrong) resolution, the slow rumble of two airplane engines. The mathematics of the process are well understood and are used in many different applications like: communication devices, radar ranging and speed measurements, signal processing of acoustic elements. Keep your eyes and ears open throughout the day and see how many other examples you can find.