How to calculate a harmonic of a square wave

[bigfattyfatfat]

Hi,

I'm a bit of a newbie to additive synthesis.. I just want to clarify that I am doing the correct calculation before continuing.

If I wanted to calculate the 5th harmonic of a square wave (the fundamental freq. being 200Hz and the amplitude of the fundamental being 1)

would the calculation be

1/5 * sin (2 * 3.14 * 1000) =

?

Thanks in advance

 

[rude man]

there's a 4/pi and a "t" missing in there somewhere ...

other than that, yes.

 

[bigfattyfatfat]

Thanks.

Actually I've just realized the 5th harmonic would be 9, so it would be

1/9 * sin (2 * 3.14 * 9F * t) =

But do you know what the 't' is equal to?

Thanks

 

[rude man]

Thanks.

Actually I've just realized the 5th harmonic would be 9, so it would be

1/9 * sin (2 * 3.14 * 9F * t) =

But do you know what the 't' is equal to?

Thanks

No, convention is that the nth harmonic is harmonically related to the first (the fundamental) by f_n = n*f₁.

"t" is time. You have a square wave that is a summation of harmonics, each of which is also a function of time (a sinusoidal one).

You still don't have a 4/π in your formulas ... you need it to get a square wave of unity amplitude.

 

[Nickie]

for any help!

Hello,

Thank you for your question. To calculate the 5th harmonic of a square wave, you would need to use the formula 1/n * sin(n * 2 * pi * f), where n is the harmonic number and f is the fundamental frequency. In this case, n = 5 and f = 200 Hz. So the calculation would be 1/5 * sin(5 * 2 * pi * 200) = 1/5 * sin(2000 * pi) = 0.2 * sin(2000 * pi). This would give you the amplitude of the 5th harmonic of the square wave. I hope this helps and feel free to ask any further questions. Good luck with your additive synthesis!