Harmonically challenged
Fig 1. Harmonic series represented in music notation
If each harmonic/sine wave were portrayed as a musical note, it would be heard as this sequence, working on the principle of the note C being the fundamental
Sound and music, by its very nature, is made up of harmonic overtones. These are a naturally occurring set of pure notes (overtones), that appear in everything that we hear, to a lesser or greater extent, each harmonic being a sine wave. The brighter a sound may be, the more upper harmonic content it contains. The quieter, or duller a sound, the less harmonic content there is. These harmonics are derived from the harmonic series, which can in turn be derived by methods of number crunching, but we’re going to stick with a more musical explanation.