eli5: On old radios, how does turning the dial tune into a different station? what is happening inside the radio to achieve this?
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Imagine you had a whole bunch of little TV screens all showing different videos. You’re having trouble concentrating on just one video because the others get distracting. So you cut a rectangle hole in a giant piece of cardboard and you use it to cover all the TVs but the one you want to watch. You’ve basically made a “filter” to filter out all the content except the one you care about. If you change your mind and want to watch a different video you just move the cardboard until the hole reveals just the video you care about.
An electric circuit in the radio does the same thing. The radio’s antenna picks up all the signals from all the radio stations but that circuit filters out all signals except the signal of the station you want to hear. Turning the dial changes the way the filter acts, just like moving the cardboard. The “hole” in the filter changes “position” to concentrate on a different signsl.
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