Well, sort of. You also have massive "noise-cancellation" systems built on the same principle when big artists perform live concerts. They literally have subwoofers between the stage and the actual sound-producing subwoofers pointing out to the crowd, and these noise cancelling subwoofers play the same bass sounds (albeit a bit delayed to account for travel) but polarity switched. Imagine sound as a wave going up and down, now if you play the exact same wave but flipped, the waves will cancel out eachother.
Techial t1_j2drnu0 wrote
Reply to comment by chipdipmcgillicuddy in Eli5 How exactly does Noise cancellation work? That too in such small airbuds by Professional-Ad3441
Well, sort of. You also have massive "noise-cancellation" systems built on the same principle when big artists perform live concerts. They literally have subwoofers between the stage and the actual sound-producing subwoofers pointing out to the crowd, and these noise cancelling subwoofers play the same bass sounds (albeit a bit delayed to account for travel) but polarity switched. Imagine sound as a wave going up and down, now if you play the exact same wave but flipped, the waves will cancel out eachother.