Ron, The terms partial, harmonic and overtone have been used interchangeably but, in a strict sense, there are distinctions. Harmonics refer to the theoretical multiples of the fundamental frequency, the first harmonic equal to the fundamental. Partials are what we call the real world ladder of fundamental and multiples of fundamental tones, which on a piano normally deviate from the harmonic ideal. The word overtone refers to harmonics or partials above the fundamental and therefore have a different numbering than harmonics and partials. I believe that ETD manuals use the word partial consistently. Tom Cole Ron Newman wrote: > > Hello all, > I dimly remember from school something about the term "partial" not being > synomonous with the term "harmonic", i.e. the fundamental is harmonic 1, > but partial 0, harmonic 2 is partial 1, etc. > > Am I making this up? Is the difference in meaning consistently adhered to > in the documentation for electronic tuning devices?
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