This why your laptop charger has a small cylinder

 

Even if you are not computer savvy, you must have all used computers at least once in our life time or have seen people using laptops at office or coffee shops. The tiny parts that are assembled in that small case, that makes a truly portable computer, may fascinate you. However, you need to charge the laptop using the charging cable that came with it, to keep in alive.

In 1971, personal computers came into existence that people could afford to buy. Once PCs became popular, the thought of building portable computers struck people. The first well-known and most usually used modern laptop was IBM N40 laptop in 1994. With the arrival of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, laptops became a craze and since then, people have used laptop.

You must have seen small cylinder at the end of the charging cable, and yet, you would have not thought of it as something serious. However, it plays a major role in keeping your laptop working.

Your laptop is made up of several moving parts like hard disk drive and CD drive that generates vibrations as they move and complete their work. The laptop comes with a battery that needs to be charged so that you can use it during power failure or when there is no power supply. The charging cable has a cylinder called ferrite bead near the end of it and it is one of the most fascinating part of the computer.

The moving part of the laptop vibrates and produces radio frequencies. These radio frequencies can obstruct with things like Wi-Fi router of your home, the dish connection and other things. Though the laptop case reduces those vibrations and prevent them from causing any interference, but the charging cord, being unprotected, may help in spreading those vibrations.

The charging cable acts as antennae and airs the vibration as radio frequencies picks up other frequencies and cause interference both in nearby equipment and in laptop.

Your Wi-Fi acts violently if these signals compete at the same frequency at which your Wi-Fi works. This is where, the cylinder plays a role on the charging cable. The cylinder has Ferrite, which is an alloy of Iron oxide or rust.

This ferrite bead kills signals that the charging cable airs or catches. It is a simple and cheap way of keeping your laptop from interfering with other electronic devices in your home.