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bob1029yesterday at 4:21 PM1 replyview on HN

The AC is 50/60Hz. You wouldn't hear that.

What happens is that the AC is rectified to DC and then it is chopped up at many kHz (10-100). The idea being that the higher the frequency, the smaller the inductors, capacitors and transformers can be.

Even if the switching frequency is ultrasonic, it can still excite audible mechanical effects in windings of transformers and other elements to create the canonical coil whine. This effect depends on certain ranges of duty cycle (system load) creating periodic spikes in power.


Replies

__MatrixMan__today at 3:27 AM

Hmm, that makes sense. I'm not sure if understanding this thing I hate will make me hate it any less, but thanks for the explanation!