Microphones are loudspeakers in reverse

Microphonedevices for converting sound into electrical energy, used in radio broa
dcasting, recording, and sound amplifying systems. Its basic component is a diaphr
agm that responds to the pressure or particle velocity of sound

Microphones look very different from loudspeakers so most people never realize
how similar they are. If you've read our article on loudspeakers, you'll already
know how microphones work because they're literally loudspeakers working in
reverse!

In a loudspeaker, electricity flows into a coil of metal wire wrapped around (or in
front of) a permanent magnet. The changing pattern of electricity in the coil creates
a magnetic field all around it that pushes against the field the permanent magnet
creates. This makes the coil move. The coil is attached to a big flat disc called
a diaphragm or cone so, as the coil moves, the diaphragm moves too. The moving
diaphragm pushes air back and forth into the room and creates sound waves we can
hear.

In a microphone, there are almost identical parts but they work in exactly the
reverse way

Microphones

Sound energy we can hear travels only so far before it soaks away into the world
around us. Until electrical microphones were invented in the late 19th century,
there was no satisfactory way to send sounds to other places. You could shout, but
that carried your words only a little further. You couldn't shout in New York City
and make yourself heard in London. And you couldn't speak in 1715 and have
someone listen to what you said a hundred years later! Remarkably, such things are
possible today: by converting sound energy into electricity and information we can
store, microphones make it possible to send the sounds of our voices, our music,
and the noises in our world to other places and other times. How do microphones
work? Let's take a closer look!