W: And now ladies and gentlemen, the moment you
have all been waiting for. Here’s the winner of
this year’s science contest: Charles Moore!
Charles, tell everyone about your invention.
M: Thank you! For the science contest this year, I’ve
invented a white noise machine. Let me explain
what that is. Have you ever been kept awake at
night because of the sound of traffic, or people
talking, or loud music? These types of noise are
sometimes called dark noise. Dark noise is made
up of sounds that bother you so much that you
can’t concentrate on what you are doing.
White noise is not exactly noise; in fact,
white noise can’t be heard at all. White noise is
made up of invisible waves of sound that reduce
the effects of dark noise by making sounds of
the opposite frequency. It’s like being in the
ocean and seeing a large wave coming toward
you. It might knock you down. But if you could
send a wave, or many small waves, toward the
big wave, it wouldn’t be as powerful, because
the small waves would hit it and reduce its size.
My machine does this with sound. As a sound
enters the microphone, the machine determines
the sound’s frequency. Then it makes a sound in the
opposite frequency that cancels out the first sound.
I hope my machine will give some peace and quiet
to people living in noisy places. Thank you.