[sdiy] Harmonics Question

[Kyle Stephens]

This has always been rather unclear to me: are harmonics measured in integers because that's an "easy" metric to employ, or do they occur naturally in integer multiples? Did the phenomenon or its measurement come first?

For some reason that seems overly "convenient" to me, or is it just a lucky happenstance? Though obviously other things in nature occur in whole numbers (at least I think I have "2" arms).

Follow up question: just how do vacuum tubes tend to produce predominantly even harmonics, and likewise why do transistors rock the odd harmonics?


_Kyle