Detecting anharmonicity at a glance

Harmonic motion is generally presented in such a way that most of the students believe that the small oscillations of a body are all harmonic. Since the situation is not actually so simple, and since the comprehension of harmonic motion is essential in many physical contexts, we present here some suggestions, addressed to undergraduate students and pre-service teachers, that allow one to find out at a glance the anharmonicity of a motion. Starting from a didactically motivated definition of harmonic motion, and stressing the importance of the interplay between mathematics and experiments, we give a four-point criterion for anharmonicity together with some emblematic examples. The role of linear damping is also analysed in relation to the gradual changing of harmonicity into anharmonicity when the ratio between the damping coefficient and the zero-friction angular frequency increases.