How do the Magnets make each other move? The graphic above, taken from buzzle.com, elaborates on the formation of electromagnets. As you've probably observed magnets exert forces on each other, and another thing that you've probably noticed is that the direction of these forces is dependent on the orientation of the magnets' poles. What you may not have known is that you can create a magnet by making a coil of of some conductive material and running a current through it, this is called an electromagnet. The field of an electromagnet is dependent on the direction that the current running through the conducting material is traveling. A speaker works by changing the direction of the current so that the poles of the electromagnet will switch which will either cause it to repel or attract the permanent magnet. It does this so quickly that the vibrations caused by it become the sounds that you hear from speakers.