Why does electricity make a buzzing sound?

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Was on the train and was hearing a pulsing buzzing sound for a few seconds, thought should I be worried

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Anonymous 0 Comments

“Buzzing” is a particular pattern of vibrations, and it’s not always caused by electricity. It can just as easily be caused by a mechanical part vibrating from being moved, rubbed against, etc.

Electricity doesn’t make any sound except when it’s physically moving something to cause it to vibrate, or when it heats up air to make it expand (thunder!). You frequently hear electrical parts called transformers buzz because the electricity going in is alternating current, meaning it flows back and forth, and that causes a magnet inside the transformer to jiggle (at 50 – 60 Hz, the frequency that they power cycles). The same thing happens in the “ballast” portion of fluorescent light fixtures for exactly the same reason.

The sort of electrical buzz you hear from transformers and lights is so common, that movie cameras and software used for editing movie sound have special filters that can be used to filter it out. Movie and TV sets tend to have lots of lights and equipment that generates that buzz sound, and sometimes the microphones pick it up.

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