solacedagony wrote:Actually, this paper is more specifically aimed at how the speaker actually works, what makes it tick, but I'm also adding basic detail on some history of speakers that I found, and also hearing and soundwaves incase the common person didn't know how those worked. I also want to add a little bit on top of that about how enclosures affect them.
Since you are going to be speaking in terms of "converting an electrical signal into sound energy" in discussing how a speaker works - you might make an analogy of the ear, compared to a microphone.
Why?
You can make the point that any electrical motor operated in reverse becomes an electrical generator...
...and therefore, make the point that a speaker is also a microphone.
Both have a diaphragm that vibrates when the sound pressure energy in the air stimulates it, and convert the sound energy into an electrical signal.
The ear doesn't have a coil of wire or a magnetic field - it uses it's own means - but the analogy is there.
And most often, microphones use other, more efficient, more broad-band technologies than a voice coil motor... but that's more akin to the laundry-list of alternative speaker technologies that exist out there as well - many ways to make a microphone, but this certainly is one.
If you operated a speaker "in reverse", by hooking it's terminals up to a recording device, you'd see that you could make a recording.
The sound energy stimulates the cone into motion, and the coil of wire begins moving in the magnetic field - generating electricity, with a waveform that emulates the motion of the cone - emulates the sound striking the cone.
Cool, no?
Of course, a speaker is designed for high excursion, to produce sound...
Sound energy wouldn't stimulate a cone to high excursion levels - so a microphone motor would be tweaked to be more efficient within the ultra-low excursion levels it would be encountering - and a mic like this would need a pretty big diaphragm, and an "enclosure" just like a speaker - but you can make an analogy in your paper!
I think it would be particularly appropriate in the scope of a paper - it shows a true understanding of the mechanics and mechanism you are trying to explain, and alternatives this mechanism is used for.
[quote="solacedagony"]Actually, this paper is more specifically aimed at how the speaker actually works, what makes it tick, but I'm also adding basic detail on some history of speakers that I found, and also hearing and soundwaves incase the common person didn't know how those worked. I also want to add a little bit on top of that about how enclosures affect them.[/quote]
Since you are going to be speaking in terms of "converting an electrical signal into sound energy" in discussing how a speaker works - you might make an analogy of the ear, compared to a microphone.
Why?
You can make the point that any electrical motor operated in reverse becomes an electrical generator...
...and therefore, make the point that a speaker is also a microphone. ;)
Both have a diaphragm that vibrates when the sound pressure energy in the air stimulates it, and convert the sound energy into an electrical signal.
The ear doesn't have a coil of wire or a magnetic field - it uses it's own means - but the analogy is there.
And most often, microphones use other, more efficient, more broad-band technologies than a voice coil motor... but that's more akin to the laundry-list of alternative speaker technologies that exist out there as well - many ways to make a microphone, but this certainly is one.
If you operated a speaker "in reverse", by hooking it's terminals up to a recording device, you'd see that you could make a recording.
The sound energy stimulates the cone into motion, and the coil of wire begins moving in the magnetic field - generating electricity, with a waveform that emulates the motion of the cone - emulates the sound striking the cone.
Cool, no? :D
Of course, a speaker is designed for high excursion, to produce sound...
Sound energy wouldn't stimulate a cone to high excursion levels - so a microphone motor would be tweaked to be more efficient within the ultra-low excursion levels it would be encountering - and a mic like this would need a pretty big diaphragm, and an "enclosure" just like a speaker - but you can make an analogy in your paper!
I think it would be particularly appropriate in the scope of a paper - it shows a true understanding of the mechanics and mechanism you are trying to explain, and alternatives this mechanism is used for.