Here’s my unhelpful contribution: I believe microphones work using piezoelectricity and I also think that’s really cool (that it exists and that humanity found a use for it).
Er, afaik popular mics are basically a speaker working in reverse, while piezoelectricity is employed in contact mics, which have rather peculiar use-cases.
Wikipedia says:
The most common are the dynamic microphone, which uses a coil of wire suspended in a magnetic field; the condenser microphone, which uses the vibrating diaphragm as a capacitor plate; and the contact microphone, which uses a crystal of piezoelectric material.
The two uses for piezo mics that I’ve encountered are Brian Chippendale slapping one on his throat for the vocals; and a very curious bowed wooden musical instrument, wherein the mic picks up the sound.
Perhaps I’m confused, but your wiki quote itself references piezoelectricity (a word I’m pretty surprised is in my keyboard’s dictionary). Am I misunderstanding?
Contact microphones, true to the name, work when in contact with another solid object that transmits sound. You’d have to shout pretty loudly into one to get it register your voice otherwise.
A contact microphone is a form of microphone that senses audio vibrations through contact with solid objects. Unlike normal air microphones, contact microphones are almost completely insensitive to air vibrations but transduce only structure-borne sound. Often used as acoustic leakage probes, they also enjoy wide usage by electroacoustic music artists experimenting with sound. Contact microphones can be used to amplify sound from acoustic musical instruments, to sense drum hits, for triggering electronic samples, and to record sound in challenging environments, such as underwater under high pressure.
Idk if you ever used a piezoelectric lighter, but take my word that you need to work it rather energetically to get a spark from it. So I easily believe that a piezo mic ain’t gonna do anything from air vibration.
Here’s my unhelpful contribution: I believe microphones work using piezoelectricity and I also think that’s really cool (that it exists and that humanity found a use for it).
That’s one type. Condenser style microphones are another. Even regular speakers can be used as (mediocre) microphones.
But “generating electricity by bending crystals” is by far the coolest one.
It for sure does not surprise me that other kinds of microphones exist, but I strongly agree with your last sentence.
Er, afaik popular mics are basically a speaker working in reverse, while piezoelectricity is employed in contact mics, which have rather peculiar use-cases.
Wikipedia says:
The two uses for piezo mics that I’ve encountered are Brian Chippendale slapping one on his throat for the vocals; and a very curious bowed wooden musical instrument, wherein the mic picks up the sound.
Perhaps I’m confused, but your wiki quote itself references piezoelectricity (a word I’m pretty surprised is in my keyboard’s dictionary). Am I misunderstanding?
Contact microphones, true to the name, work when in contact with another solid object that transmits sound. You’d have to shout pretty loudly into one to get it register your voice otherwise.
Idk if you ever used a piezoelectric lighter, but take my word that you need to work it rather energetically to get a spark from it. So I easily believe that a piezo mic ain’t gonna do anything from air vibration.
Gotcha, thank you for the clarification.
Thank Jim West, met him a few times, chill guy. I used to work with inventors.