Billings on the inner workings of a speaker: 'This is when we learned about turning electricity into sound'

Dr. Roger Billings, scientist, inventor and entrepreneur, recently appeared on the children's lecture series Science Live to discuss speaker technology.

Hosted by Billings' organization, the International Academy of Science, Science Live strives to teach children all about the sciences with the motto, "Inspiring the Next Generation of Innovationeers." Billings is also the founder and head of the Acellus Academy, an online K-12 school program.

"This is when we learned about turning electricity into sound," said Billings, displaying a speaker. "And it's kind of special because we made a speaker."

In the video, Billings shows a speaker containing a magnet on one side and a coil on another, and demonstrates that the speaker functions when pulses of electricity run through the coil, creating a magnetic field. When the magnetic field pulls against the magnet, the result is an effective sound transmitter — or a speaker.

Billings said he wanted "to be able to see if we can take this to a new higher plain, or a higher level. Hook up an amplifier, put sound on here and pulse it."

"What if we can get you to speak into this and make it generate power, generate electricity?" Billings asked.

He connected the wires and a switch to a lightbulb to demonstrate that speaking into it would create energy to illuminate the bulb.

The experiment worked. 

"Actually, this is kind of important because what we created here was a microphone," Billings said. "And it's interesting, a speaker running backwards is a microphone because her very loud voice caused sound waves to hit this beautiful picture and vibrate it, which moved the coil, which was in the magnetic field with this magnet.

"A microphone puts out a very micro current," he explained.

The experiment was part of a series of Science Live programs Billings hosts under the Roger Billings Mentoring Program.

"Research shows that students who attend Roger Billings’ weekly lectures improve academically and develop positive attitudes about their schoolwork," the Accellus Program website states. "Using examples from his own career and life, Roger Billings motivates and inspires students to achieve their best and believe that they can make a difference."

Students in Billing's scholarship program participate in weekly online Science Live lectures, which focus on teaching children the importance of education and obtaining scientific knowledge.