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
1. You can produce a specific sound wave that cancels out another sound wave at a specific point in space.
2. Electric signals travel faster in wires than sound waves in the air.
With #1, you can cancel out background noise in the environment IF you know what the noise is. With #2, you have enough time to detect and process the noise information before it arrives at your ear (by having microphones a small distance away from your ears).
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