• Question: How do speakers turn signals into sound?

    Asked by Ioan cruyf to Duncan on 13 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Duncan McNicholl

      Duncan McNicholl answered on 13 Nov 2017:


      With magnets. There’s a coil of wire in a speaker, and when electricity passes through it it turns into a magnet, just like the ones they use to pick up cars in a scrapyard. The magnet pulls another magnet towards it or pushes it away, depending on which way the electricity is going, and then the second magnet is attached to a big paper cone so that it pushes and pulls a big chunk of air along for the ride. Since sound is just chunks of air moving around, that’s the whole thing working now.

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