Circuit Playground: N is for Noise

by Collin Cunningham

published June 06, 2018, last updated June 06, 2018

posted in Circuit Playground

Save Download

Beginner

Project guide

Transcription

Adabot: Hello Minerva - do you read me? Over.

Minerva: Hello Ada [static] It’s difficult to hear [static]

Adabot: Hello Minerva [static] - your signal is unclear please re-[static] , over.

Minerva: I can’t quite hear you Adabot. There’s too much noise!

Minerva: Sorry Adabot - there’s too much noise in the signal. I couldn’t hear you :(

Adabot: I know - I couldn’t hear you either.

Adabot: Plus - I was going to watch a movie, but it won’t play. Any idea why?

Minerva: Something around here might be creating noise and interfering with the wifi signal.

Adabot: Noise? I don’t hear any noise.

Minerva: Well, Adabot - sometimes there’s noise that we can’t hear. It’s not audio noise, it’s electrical noise and it can cause problems for wireless circuits like your laptop’s wifi …

Minerva: … or even our walkie talkies.

Adabot: Noise you can’t hear? Interesting. Where could it be coming from?

Minerva: Lots of things can create electrical noise, but the most common are device with motors in them..

Minerva: like say … this fan!

Adabot: Hmm - but the video still isn’t loading.

Minerva: Or … devices that use a lot of power and send out radio waves … or microwaves, did I just hear the microwave oven?

Adabot: Oh good - my popcorn’s done!

Minerva: And look - now that the microwave stopped, the video is loading just fine :)

Adabot: Excellent - we are now noise free!

Adabot: But why does electrical noise cause problems like that?

Minerva: Too much electrical noise can confuse or overwhelm a circuit. Engineers often have to work on reducing electrical noise in their circuitry because less electrical noise makes a circuit work better.

Adabot: Oh - just like how it’s hard for someone to do work when there’s lots of regular noise around.