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Explain Like I'm Five · by Danylo Kovalenko · 2026-10-09

ELI5 how do noise cancelling headphones actually cancel noise

does the mic listen and play the opposite wave? how is it fast enough

81 sparks · 18 comments

Comments

Cozy Baker · 9 likes

have you tried the boring option first? it works more often than not

Mariana Costa · 5 likes

was expecting a different answer but this makes sense though

Milan Visser · 3 likes

i disagree but i see where youre coming from

Minh Nguyen · 2 likes

ok youve convinced me

Diego García · 4 likes

tbh honestly no idea but im reading every reply

Hugo Martin · 1 likes

true, but only up to a point

Oliver Smith · 4 likes

i'd say start small, anything bigger fell apart for me

Aisha Jacobs · 4 likes

love this question though

Rizky Pratama · 3 likes

my partner and i disagree on this constantly

Grace Parker · 2 likes

for me its definately the simple stuff

Niamh Byrne · 4 likes

ahh makes sense now

Mehdi Benali · 2 likes

that's the part that bugs me too haha

Mia Anderson · 11 likes

haha yes lol

Zeynep Demir · 1 likes

i think about this more than i should

Lucas Dubois · 0 likes

learned teh hard way so you dont have to idk

Tiago Costa · 0 likes

lol this took me way longer to figure out than id like to admit

Noah Miller · 0 likes

honestly this is the content i come here for

Daan Bakker · 0 likes

my answer changes every year tbh