Basically, if you're hearing 1hz sound then once per second the sounds wave goes up and down for a full cycle. To "cancel" it you play a sound that goes down and then up so that you get +1 from outside and -1 front the headphones. And you end up with 0 when you add them.
It's like how I gimbal moves the camera in the opposite direction so even though the person holding it is moving when you add the gimbal movement the camera stays still. There's effectively no sound from outside hitting your ear drum (in a perfect world where it is 100%)
DanielEnots t1_j2daq3s wrote
Reply to comment by plantito101 in Eli5 How exactly does Noise cancellation work? That too in such small airbuds by Professional-Ad3441
Basically, if you're hearing 1hz sound then once per second the sounds wave goes up and down for a full cycle. To "cancel" it you play a sound that goes down and then up so that you get +1 from outside and -1 front the headphones. And you end up with 0 when you add them.
It's like how I gimbal moves the camera in the opposite direction so even though the person holding it is moving when you add the gimbal movement the camera stays still. There's effectively no sound from outside hitting your ear drum (in a perfect world where it is 100%)