[sdiy] Harmonics Question

[Joel B]

It is my understanding that for vibrating and bowed strings, and "vibrating columns of air" i.e. wind instruments, organs, etc, the harmonics predominantly have an Integer relationship. Things like bells have non-integer harmonics which is why they sound like...bells.

This was all said to have been figured out by Pythagoras back in the 6th century BC, wikipedia indicates that the Chinese already figured this out a hundred years earlier...

some googling produces:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overtone_series

http://www.music.sc.edu/fs/bain/atmi02/hs/index-audio.html

more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pythagorean_comma


Joel

On Nov 2, 2011, at 8:51 PM, Kyle Stephens wrote:

> 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
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