[sdiy] Harmonics Question

[David G Dixon]

> 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).

Pick up yer guitar and play some harmonics (pick a string while just
touching it at the 12th fret (first harmonic), 7th fret (second harmonic)
and 5th fret (third harmonic), and you'll have your answer.  Each harmonic
divides the string into an integer value of equal vibrating sections
separated by non-vibrating nodes.  If you touch the string in a place where
it is not divided into a relatively small integer of equal lengths, you
won't get a harmonic.