Harmonic Series

Harmonic Series Wheel demonstrates a number of principles about sound, beginning with the fact that sound is a wave motion. The wavy visual patterns on the spinning wheel are converted to electrical signals via light sources and photocells. The resulting signal is both played through a speaker and displayed on an oscilloscope. Visitors can add or remove various sound frequencies by controlling the amplitude of the electrical signal generated by each photocell. Adding the harmonics to the fundamental frequencies changes the timbre of sound. The oscilloscope reveals the summing of different frequencies and the reinforcement at the difference frequency









