Week ago I went to MRI and was surprised that they gave me headphones because there’s so much noise during procedure. It sounds like some effects from older PC mainly and I’m curious why is it there.
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An MRI machine has a lot of parts that can make noise. The ones you’re most likely to hear during the operation of the machine would be the truly *massive* coils that generate the magnetic field used to make the images. It has to be turned on and generate an extremely powerful field at specific frequencies, then turned off and the “echoes” (vastly simplified) of the effects the field had on your tissues are measured to produce the image.
The amount of power going through it causes the coils to expand and contract, as well as vibrate a bit. Also, really big relays are used to switch the currents (which are huge), and they make a lot of noise.
And lastly, the MRI magnets have to be cooled down to be superconductive, which means liquid helium and the systems to pump it, which also can make some noise.
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