Why Does Adding Harmonics Not Change the Period of the Fundamental Wave?

  • Thread starter Thread starter johnj7
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Period Waveforms
Join the discussion
Registration is free. Start your own thread to ask a follow-up.
1 reply · 3K views
johnj7
Messages
27
Reaction score
0
after doing several problems, i keep seeing that when you add the waveform of the fundamental with its higher harmonics, the period of the summed wave is equal to the period of the fundamental wave.

Could someone explain conceptually why this happens?

that would be much appreciated!
 
Physics news on Phys.org
Well, if the fundamental has period T, consider a harmonic with period T/N.

You can think of the harmonic also having period 2T/N, 3T/N, etc.