I’ve always been curious about how noise-cancelling headphones work. It feels like magic that they can block out background noise while still letting you hear music or podcasts clearly. Can someone explain in simple terms how they cancel out unwanted sounds?
In: Technology
I’m pissed off about this. In high school (40 years ago, I’m old) my science teacher drew sines waves on the blackboard and showed us how multiple waves can add together to make complex sound. I looked at it and asked ‘why can’t you have a microphone listen and play back the exact opposite to cancel it out and make a “Cone of Silence” like in Get Smart?’ (a tv show with spy gadgets). The teacher said it wouldn’t work and wouldn’t explain why not. Decades later they come out with noise-cancelling headphones that do exactly what I had imagined.
Oh, well. Maybe I’ll have more luck with Glow-In-The-Dark-Pizza.
Latest Answers