Create a high-definition speaker -- for a few pennies (seriously)
- by Brian White (RSS feed) on Nov 10th 2007 2:00PM
- Filed under electronics
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to scrounge in the kitchen and sofa cushions for these items:
- A penny (a shiny one)
- Some aluminum foil
- Some tape (like clear packaging tape)
- A paper plate
This is the coolest low-to-no-budget hack I've seen in a long time. These things, when completed, may not look the best, but try it today and see if the sound fits your bill. Invite some friends over and pump up the jams. The music will flow, but nobody will believe that paper plates and other junk could be transformed into a decent speaker.
Editor's Note: After review, it's apparent that this project is, indeed, a hoax. We apologize for publishing this under the pretense of plausibility, and assure you that we will strive harder to check our future posts and projects for signs of fraudulence.
Comments [10]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-04-2009 @ 2:04AM
mitsy said...
The traditional coil and speaker work because its in use for countless objects. the coil make a magnetic field, the magnet either repels or attracts the field and then the diaphragm vibrates, thus making sound.
Although an electric current running through a penny does make a minuscule magnetic field, it isn't enough to actually have any effect, even if the magnetic field was strong enough to produce sound, it still wouldn't have any effect, the foil can not be magnetized.
Mythbusters did this-Youtube-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya9ZsKyJRrE&feature=related
Oh, and wouldn't it have been easier to tape the wire and the penny before wrapping it around the tape?
Reply
11-10-2007 @ 3:36PM
SushiPillow said...
This was proven to be fake.
Reply
11-10-2007 @ 3:40PM
Kevin said...
This is a hoax. It won't work. I'm saddened that DIYLife would put something like this up without verifying that it works first. Boo on you.
Reply
11-10-2007 @ 4:54PM
Kenneth Finnegan said...
I can't believe someone would post this without testing it first. It just reeks of hoax. A speaker using one wire? It doesn't make any sense.
Reply
11-10-2007 @ 7:17PM
Chad said...
How stupid am I to try this project?
Pretty damn stupid. Didn't think this one out.
DIY Life should remove this...
Reply
11-18-2007 @ 9:26PM
matthew said...
Are you people serious in posting this? I know some of those in the world haven’t been to collage, haven’t majored in electrical engineering, but neither have I. It doesn’t take a genius to point out at least 5 fatal flaws in this “speaker”, I’m not use if this is just from someone posting it quickly without actually watching it themselves, but if the OP actually thought this was real, please take half an hour and read the Wikipedia entries on “electricity”, “loudspeaker”, and “hoax”.
Reply
11-10-2007 @ 11:35PM
Dave A. said...
If the video is supposed to be humor, then it's lost on me.
I'm not an electrician major, but even I know when something smells fishy, and that one's been sitting out a couple of days.
You've been had by a scamp.
Reply
11-11-2007 @ 11:17AM
Ron said...
Considering there is no Amp involved in this equation, even if it did work, the sound volume would be almost non-existent.
Reply
11-11-2007 @ 1:35PM
Arjay Groucho said...
If this were April first ... I'd laugh. But it isn't and I've lost all respect for DIYLife, a once trusted source of information. You CAN'T be so inept as to accept this at face value ... What happened?
RJG
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Reply
11-11-2007 @ 11:54PM
Kit F said...
It's not a hoax, it was merely a joke. But it is, in fact, fake.
Reply