Adjacent harmonics in the natural series produce progressively smaller musical intervals

Evidence

The musical intervals of adjacent harmonics in the natural harmonic series starting with the fundamental or first harmonic, illustrated on a musical stave and as notes on a keyboard in Figure 3.3, are: octave (2:1), perfect fifth (3:2), perfect fourth (4:3), major third (5:4), minor third (6:5), flat minor third (7:6), sharp major second (8:7), a major whole tone (9:8) and a minor whole tone (10:9). — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 803

Categorization

• DEFINE: Binds the physical harmonic series (integer multiples of a fundamental) to named musical intervals and their frequency ratios.