Hi,
> Why does a sinusoidal waveform alone does not have any harmonics or
> distortion ?
>
> For example, (Reference ->
formatting link
> Sawtooth wave of constant period contains odd and even harmonics
> Square wave of constant period contains odd harmonics
> Triangle wave, (an integral of square wave) contains odd harmonics
>
> But, How is it possible that sinusoidal wave alone does not have any
> harmonics or distortion ?
> I searched the internet,but i did not find any link/pdf that talks in
> detail about these .
> Any ideas ?
>
> Thx in advans,
> Karthik Balaguru
>
It's a good question. Myself I'd say a triangle waveform looks like it should be the one to have no harmonics. But it's all down to how smoothly the waveform voltage changes. The triangle and square have significant 'shape' discontinuities during each cycle and these have the effect of creating harmonics. The sine wave although a horrible looking non linear waveform, is the one with the absolutely smoothest rate of change over all its cycle. (DC is even smoother but isn't a frequency :)