How does noise cancellation work?
Unless you happen to live in a remote, isolated environment, you’re always surrounded by all kinds of noise. Noise is just sound that is too loud or not useful, such as the roar of engines or clanking of machinery. Noise cancellation technology tries to cancel or minimize unwanted sound. Sometimes, ear plugs and sound dampeners aren’t convenient or efficient. Noise cancellation, in contrast, tries to block the unwanted sound at its source rather than trying to prevent it from entering our ears. Sounds travel through the air as waves, and each wave has a specific shape, or “waveform.” If you add two wave together that are going in the same direction, and the peaks and valleys of those waves line up, they are “in phase.” This will double the volume of the sound. If you add two waves together that are going in the same direction, but the peaks of one line up with the valleys of the other, they are “out of phase,” and will cancel each other out. Imagine a “positive” sound and a “negative”
