How do headphones work? (As in how does electricity get turned into sound)
In: Technology
There’s quite a few interesting takes, but definitely not ELI5. Alot of assumptions are being forced on a 5 year old, from EM theory, difference between current, electric current and voltage. That all sounds are basically just vibrations in the air, hence why sound is muffled in water and even moreso in space.
I think an appropriate ELI 5 to start is that sounds are caused by air vibrating/shaking. That’s why snapping your fingers make that sound, doing so vibrates the particles to make a sound.
Then magnets. We all know magnets can attract and repel. Without getting too into electromagnetism, it turns out some materials can be made into magnets when passing electricity through it- hence electro+magnet.
Now, using electricity we can make an electromagnet be either repulsive or attractive (remember the North/South poles?). These electromagnets would interact with normal, non-electromagnetic, magnets causing some vibration inside your headphones.
Headphones, and anything that produces electrical based audio, would have these electromagnets that would vibrate back and forth from being attractive and repulsive, these vibrations inside your headphone produce the sounds in your headphones.
So to *recap*:
•Sound is vibration.
•Electromagnets are naturally non-metallic objects made magnetic using electricity.
•Magnets can be attractive or repulsive depending on their polarity (North/South Poles).
•Electromagnets can alternate between attractive or repulsive by changing electrical current.
•There’s a normal, non-electromagnetic, naturally magnetic in the headphones.
•Electromagnet would constantly alternate between attracting and repulsing the normal magnet. This causes vibrations.
•Vibrations made create the sound in our headphones
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