What phenomenon may result in a fast frequency appearing slower due to a low sampling rate?

The phenomenon that causes a fast frequency to appear slower due to a low sampling rate is known as aliasing. This occurs when a signal is sampled at a rate that is insufficient to capture its frequency content accurately, specifically below the Nyquist rate, which is twice the highest frequency present in the signal. When the sampling frequency is too low, higher frequencies can be misrepresented as lower frequencies in the sampled data, leading to an inaccurate representation of the original signal.

As a result, what should be interpreted as a higher frequency can show up as a lower frequency in the analysis. Thus, aliasing significantly affects the fidelity of the digital signal representation and must be carefully managed through appropriate sampling strategies to avoid misinterpretation of the signal's characteristics.