What harmonic is it vibrating at?

Question

A guitar string has a length of 0.5 m. If the string is vibrating with a wavelength of 0.17 m, what harmonic is it vibrating at?

a	4th harmonic
b	6th harmonic
c	2nd harmonic
d	1st harmonic

Answer 1

If a string has length 0.5 m, then its fundamental wave length is 1m. That is its longest possible wavelength.

0.17m is approximately 1/6 of that, therefore it is the 6th harmonic.