Encyclopedia > Overtone

  Article Content

Overtone

An overtone is a sinusoidal component of a waveform, of greater frequency than the fundamental frequency.

The first overtone is usually twice the frequency of the fundamental, and thus then corresponds to the second harmonic; the second overtone is usually three times the frequency of the fundamental, and thus then corresponds to the third harmonic, etc. Not all musical instruments have overtones that match the harmonics as described in this note.

Use of the term overtone is generally confined to acoustic waves, especially in applications related to music.

Contrast with fundamental, harmonic.

Source: originally from Federal Standard 1037C, but edited.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Reformed churches

... America. The first Reformed churches in France produced the Gallic Confession[?] and French Reformed confession of faith, which served as models for the Belgic Confession ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 23 ms