This was an assignment that we did about a certain technology. Mine was on the microphone and the speaker and how they work. We had to reaserch these and in the write up show how it works and explain when and where it was invented.
The Speaker/Microphone
Emile Berliner was the first person to invent the microphone in 1876; the first microphone was used as a telephone voice transmitter. The Bell telephone company was so impressed with it they bought it from Emile for $ 50,000. A microphone consists of a diaphragm, a magnet, and a coil of wire. When you speak into it the sound waves created by your voice vibrate the diaphragm, which is connected to a magnet, which is inside the coil of wire. These vibrations make the magnet to move inside of the coil at the same frequency as your voice. This current, which is the same frequency as your voice is carried by the wires to wherever you wish it to go. The magnet moving inside the wire creates an electrical current.
A speaker consists of woofers, subwoofers, tweeters, midranges, and compression horns. The basic function of a speaker is to push air. The human ear perceives as sound is just changes in air pressure, so the function of the speaker is to create changes in the air pressure that we can hear. If the speaker is at low quality then you will hear bass, or it will feel like a thumping sensation once the frequency goes below the human hearing.
At the back of the speaker it has an electromagnetic called a voice coil that is attached to the diaphragm. The cone is attached to the electromagnet that is suspended in a permanent magnetic field. Electrical current is sent to the magnet from the amplifier, changing the magnetic field on the electromagnet, and pushing it back and forth within the surrounding magnetic field. Because the electromagnet is attached to the cone, this movement pushes the cone in and out , generating sound waves.
This is how a speaker and a microphone work.
