What is an overtone and how does it relate to resonance?

alexavier · Apr 17, 2008

please, am finding it difficult to understand what exactly is overtone.please i need your help guys....

mathman · Apr 17, 2008

alexavier said:

please, am finding it difficult to understand what exactly is overtone.please i need your help guys....

A simple example will illustrate. Hold a string taught and pluck it. It can vibrate many ways, but the end points are fixed. The lowest wavelength (called fundamental) will be 1/2 the string length, others (called overtones) will be multiples of this.

The concept extends to any wave motion (such as musical tones), where the geometry fixes the allowable waves.

Kurdt · Apr 17, 2008

An overtone is any other vibration of a body other than its fundamental frequency. The fundamental wavelength of a stretched string is twice the length of the string. A harmonic is an integral multiple of the fundamental frequency.

Shooting Star · Apr 18, 2008

An overtone is not just any other frequency other than its fundamental. It is any frequency above the fundamental at which a body resonates. It need not be a harmonic.

What is an overtone and how does it relate to resonance?

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