This week we have a TPL Kids website visitor who may have been listening to some music and started to wonder how their headphones works.
For this wonder, we found an answer on the website Techwalla:
Loudspeakers and their smaller siblings headphones both work on the same general principle, by converting electrical signals to sound waves. The music source sends the signal, in the form of an alternating electrical current, through a cable to the drivers -- miniature speakers -- in the headphones. The signal is sent through the voice coil in the driver, which generates a magnetic field. The voice coil is surrounded by a fixed magnet, and the alternating current in the voice coil attracts and repels it from the magnet. The voice coil is attached via a suspension material to the driver's cone, which moves back and forth between 20 to 20,000 times per second, changing the air pressure in front of it and creating sound waves you can hear.
So the next time you’re using headphones/earbuds to listen to music, think about the science/engineering behind it all that allows you to hear music as your favourite band/artist intended.