A row of resonant patterns invites simple numbering: first, second, third. That numbering becomes misleading if the graphic uses overtone order and harmonic number as though they mean the same thing. The commissioner should ask what each label counts before the designer lays out the comparison.
OpenStax's musical-sound source discussion compares idealised tube boundary conditions and their allowed resonances. In the simple one-open-end, one-closed-end model, the sequence differs from the all-integer sequence of the open-open model. A technical reviewer should supply the correct mode and frequency labels, including any limits of the idealisation.
Keep sequence position distinct from frequency ratio
A title such as first overtone identifies a position above the fundamental in the available sequence. A harmonic label identifies a frequency relationship to the fundamental. Give those labels separate places if the lesson needs both.
Do not rely on a row number to stand for either concept. Numbering the graphic panels for navigation can accidentally create a third counting system. If panels need reference codes for review, keep those codes out of the finished educational display or distinguish them clearly.
Show which tube is being discussed
The end conditions need to remain visible wherever the labels are used. A cropped pattern detached from its tube can lose the information that makes the sequence meaningful. Avoid presenting the patterns as universal options that apply to every instrument or duct.
The drawing should identify whether it represents displacement, pressure or another approved quantity. A decorative curve inside a tube is not enough. The expert, not the designer, should decide which representation supports the intended explanation.
A hypothetical museum label film
An invented museum commissions a short animated comparison beside an organ exhibit. The designer copies the numbering style from an open-open tube into a one-end-closed example, labelling successive pictures with consecutive harmonic numbers.
The reviewer catches the mismatch and supplies a small table linking each displayed pattern to its frequency relationship and overtone position. The revised layout keeps the two naming systems distinct and retains the tube-end symbols throughout the scene.
The museum does not use the simple illustration as a full acoustic model of the historic instrument. It is an introductory explanation of a specific idealisation, not a claim that every real pipe follows a perfect textbook sequence.
Read the labels aloud during review
Have the narrator and technical reviewer read each label with its corresponding picture. This exposes ambiguous phrases that may be overlooked in a visually balanced layout. Check any shortened captions separately; removing a word such as overtone can change what a number appears to mean.
Discuss the resonance graphic with Live Images and provide the expert-approved naming table. Clear numbering makes the difference between a useful comparison and a beautifully arranged set of incompatible labels.
Prepared with AI assistance for Live Images. Planning guidance is general; suitability and production scope must be agreed for your project.