Saturday 26 April 2014

How does a speaker work?

Speakers produce sound by translating an “electrical signal into an audible sound”. Inside a speaker is an “electromagnet: a metal coil which creates a magnetic field when an electric current flows through it”. The coil acts very similarly to a regular magnet. It is able to reverse the “direction of the current on the coil” which switches the “poles of the magnet”.

This electromagnet is “placed in front of a permanent magnet” that has a fixed position. The “electromagnet is mobile” and able to move. As electric currents are passed through the coil, the “direction of its magnetic field is rapidly changed. This means that it is in turn attracted to and repelled from the permanent magnet, vibrating back and forth.”


“The frequency of the vibrations governs the pitch of the sound produced, and their amplitude affects the volume.”


Physics.org (n.d). Physics.org. Retrieved from http://www.physics.org/article-questions.asp?id=54.

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