Why Don’t My Noise-Canceling Headphones Block All Sounds?

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Calling headphones noise-cancelling can be deceptive. While it is true that noise-cancelling headphones are capable of counteracting some background noises, they are not perfect for all types of noise. In this article we will discuss the inner workings, limitations, and potential tradeoffs of noise-cancelling headphone technology.

All Headphones are Noise Cancelling

Technically all headphones are noise cancelling on some level. Just as putting your hands over your ears blocks incoming sound, any headphone you put on, in, or over your ear will ...

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Laser Hearing: The Cocktail Party Effect

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The cocktail party effect is the ability to listen selectively despite a noisy environment. The term comes from the observation that even in a crowded cocktail party room, a person can carry on a conversation with one person by “tuning in” to them and “tuning out” everything else.

If you think about it, it’s amazing that we can direct our focus to parse a desired noise source—say, a television—over the voice of the person sitting next to you. Of course, it ...

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Superpowers of the Ear: The Inner Ear

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While both the outer ear and middle ear (which were discussed previously) are amazing and complex, the inner ear is perhaps the most amazing and most complex. While the world of the outer ear and middle ear are full of air, the world of the inner ear is filled with watery fluids. So, are you ready to take a plunge into the aquatic world of the inner ear?

For the sake of simplicity today, we will divide the inner ...

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Superpowers of the Ear: The Middle Ear

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In a previous article we learned about the superpowers of the outer ear and promised we would tell you more about the middle ear, as well as that little drumhead at the end of your ear canal—the tympanic membrane.

The middle ear is a pocket of air bounded by the ear drum on the outer side and the cochlea on the inner side. The middle ear is home to the three smallest named bones in the human body: the malleus, ...

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Superpowers of the Ear: The Outer Ear

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You may have heard people talk about the ear in three parts: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. But have you ever wondered why there are three parts in the first place? Why not just attach a nerve to the eardrum and call it good? The answers to these questions might surprise you.

While each part of the ear has an important function, in this post we are going to explore the superpowers of the outer ear.

The ...

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Anatomy of a Sound Wave

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When most people hear the word wave, they immediately think of ocean waves. While there’s nothing wrong about thinking about a sunny day at the beach, in terms of acoustics, the kind of waves you see crashing on the sand are not like most sound waves. In fact, crashing ocean waves are like the complicated nonlinear waves you find in a sonic boom situation.

Sonic booms may be cool, but if you want to understand sound waves, it’s best to start ...

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