Eli5: how does a microphone work?
In: Engineering
There are many different types, Dynamic and Condenser are the most common ones.
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In a dynamic microfone a membrane is linked to a magnet, and circled around that is a ring of cables, called coil. This principle is called “Induction”.
When we speak we move the air around us and if that air hits the membrane, it starts to move, and with it, the magnet.
Because the magnet is inside the coil, it translates the movement into electric waves which we can now use.
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In a Condensener there’s no membrane, just 2 tiny little gold metal plates really close to each other. Connected to these is the condenser.
When we apply power to this condenser, it starts to look at the golden plates. When we now speak into the mic, one of these plates starts to move and this is registered and translated from the condenser into electrical waves.
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Now here comes the clue.
In order to hear it again, we need to do the same thing from the beginning but in reverse, because a dynamic microfone in reverse is called a speaker.
A Membrane is linked to a magnet, and when we insert an electrical wave into that coil, it starts to push and pull the magnet which moves the membrane and makes the sounds again.
TLDR: Every Sound is just an analog waves which moves the Air around us. Microfones use different methods like Induction or Capacity to translate these analog waves into electrical waves.
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