The main purpose of an oscilloscope is to analyze and view analog waveforms. To do this, the oscilloscope samples a waveform at some finite sample rate, generating a vector of voltages with respect to time. Since this vector represents a set of points (not the actual smooth analog waveform), it is often desirable to modify the acquired waveform by generating samples that are predicted between the actual acquired points. The generation of samples that occur in between actual waveform samples is called interpolation. When done properly, this results in a waveform with a higher resultant sample rate that is a closer approximation of the analog waveform under analysis.