how can a speaker produce multiple sounds at once if it can only vibrate at one frequency at a time?

Answer 1

A speaker can only produce one wave at a time not one frequency. If you take two waves of different frequencies, and add them together (like 2 different notes), you will get one continuous wave function with multiple frequencies seen. In short, no matter how many frequencies you overlay, there will still only be one 'sequence of vibrations' needed to produce these sounds.

Answer 2

The simple answer is that speakers and all other vibrating things produce multiple frequencies, not just one, when they vibrate. When you hear the high C vibration, for example, you are actually hearing a base frequency plus dozens (if not more, depending on how good your hearing is) of overtones or harmonics. When a multi-note chord is played, all those various base frequencies and overtones pile up on top of each other (called super-positioning); so you can enjoy the Bach Etude from your speakers.

Light does the same thing. For example, white light is not a single frequency; it contains the frequencies of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet and their harmonic frequencies as well. A gent named Fourier discovered the business of harmonics years ago and he was able to write some very sophisticated equations to explain them. [See source.]

As an aside, lasers are an exception. They produce what is called coherent light, which means they have no measurable overtones or harmonics. As a consequence, laser light beams tend to stay together rather than spread out and dissipate like ordinary light. This allows us to shoot a very narrow, coherent beam to the Moon and measure the time the beam goes there and back; we use that to measure the precise distance the Moon is from Earth.

Answer 3

basically the same way your eardrum works to hear different frequencies at the same time. the various component frequencies add up to form a waveform that contains all the others. the higher frequencies sort of 'ride on' the lower frequencies. it is pretty hard to explain and took me a while to get it when i was in electronics school. i was studying electricity and how different AC frequencies mix. the math is the same for sound, though, and it is some pretty serious math. if you want to choke on some numbers, look up fourier analysis. hope i spelled that right.

Answer 4

Speakers can play any number of sounds in it's operating frequency depending on the level recorded at. Just like an eardrum hears more than one sound at a time.

Answer 5

the air vibrates my dear,...the body of the speaker is not meant to btuts till does and when it does it gives the same sound...a very irritating humming sort of a sound

Answer 6

I guess we get back to the question of sucking and blowing at the same time!