Physics of Sound: Demonstrations

Synthecizing a square wave

Adding overtones with particular amplitudes and phases to the fundamental mode, one can obtain anharmonic signals of different shapes such as triangular, rectangular, saw-tooth, etc. Below the construction of a square wave from a sinusoidal wave is illustrated.

Move the slider to add more or less harmonics.

 
Below you can listen to the sound of the generated signals. Move the slider to include more or less harmonics and allow some time to the computer to recreate the sound. If you click too soon on "Play", you will hear the previous sound.

© Dmitry Garanin, 2012, powered by Wolfram Research