Passage to be used for the remaining multiple-choice questions The timbre, or qu
ID: 1297782 • Letter: P
Question
Passage to be used for the remaining multiple-choice questions
The timbre, or quality, of a musical tone depends on the number of harmonics and the amplitude of each harmonic present. This includes the fundamental frequency of the note played. Figure 2a illustrates the first three harmonic s of tone. The addition of the first two harmonics is shown in Figure 2b and the addition of the first three harmonics is shown in Figure 2c.
Figure 2a
Figure 2c
Figure 3
17. Which of the waveforms shown in Figure 1 has the shortest period?
A) The waveform in Figure 2c
B) Second harmonic
C) The waveform in Figure 2b
D) First harmonic
E) Third harmonic
18. At the first position where all the three curves in Figure 2a intersect, the curves are all ____
A) in phase
B) at zero displacement
C) at maximum displacement
D) out of phase
19. The period of the waveform shown in Figure 2c is the _____
A) same as the period of the second harmonic.
B) sum of the periods of the first, second and third harmonics.
C) same as the period of the first harmonic.
D) same as the period of the third harmonic.
20. If the frequency of the third harmonic in Figure 3 is 480 Hz, what is the frequency of the second harmonic?
A) 480 Hz
B) 240 Hz
C) 160 Hz
D) 720 Hz
E) 320 Hz
Explanation / Answer
17) Short period means higher frequency and thus higher harmonics. Thus third harmonic will have highest frequency.