Does audio has a rate like frame rate?

[Jim Framer]

I feel like no one adequately explained this. Now, video is measured in frames per second, but audio is not; audio is measure in sampling rate. For the purposes of answering your question however, I’ll call the audio sample rate frames per second (or FPS for short).

A typical video is played back at a speed like 24 FPS or 60 FPS. Audio is usually played back at about 48,000 FPS. Yes 48 THOUSAND times per SECOND.

So, how then is this possible? Simple: video playback and audio playback happen *independently* of each other. Video and audio are in no way related except for the fact that they’re kept in sync by timing mechanisms. Put differently, audio and video are not played back by the same thing. They are played back by completely unrelated mechanisms; our brains are simply fooled into thinking they’re related like they are in real life. That video game you’re playing renders graphics at 30 FPS, but audio at 48,000 FPS. This is what we mean by 48kHz sample rates.