Question

A steel wire fixed at both ends has a fundamental frequency of 200 Hz. A person can hear sound of maximum frequency 14 kHz. What is the highest harmonic that can be played on this string which is audible to the person?

Answer 1

Highest Harmonic is 70th Harmonic

Explanation:

Given,  

Fundamental frequency $f_0$ of the steel wire = 2000 Hz

Let the highest harmonic audible to the person be n.

Frequency of the highest harmonic, $f^'$ = 14000 Hz

So, $f' = nf_0$ ...(1)

$\frac {f^'}{f_0} = \frac {14000}{200}$

$\frac {nf_0}{f_0} = 70$

n = 70

Hence, the highest harmonic audible to man is the 70th harmonic.