When you strike a bell, it makes a loud ringing noise. Instead of just listening to the bell, put your finger on the bell after hitting it. Can you feel it shaking? This movement or shaking, i.e. the to and fro motion of the body, is termed vibration. The sound moves through a medium by alternating contracting and expanding parts of the medium it travels through. This compression and expansion create a minute pressure difference that we perceive as sound. In this article, let’s take a look at one of our five senses. i.e., hearing.
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Human Ear
Hearing is a sense endowed to us, thanks to the presence of the human auditory system. This auditory system gives us the ability to perceive sound by detecting vibrations in the surrounding medium. The vibration, as mentioned earlier, consists of minute pressure variations. How the human ear converts pressure difference into perception is fascinating. We will now take a closer look at how this is achieved. We will start where a sound wave would start and follow it on its journey from outside our ear all the way to our brain.
Parts of Ears
The diagram of the human ear is shown below:
Outer Ear
When you see someone, all you see is a tiny part of a very complex mechanism. The flaps of cartilage are known as the Pinna. These folds of cartilage help reflect the incoming sound waves and also affect their intensity. This effect allows the brain to figure out the direction of the source of the sound. The pinna is the opening to the ear Canal. The ear canal is a small cylindrical tube about 2.5 centimetres long. This canal leads to a vibrating membrane commonly known as the eardrum. The eardrum marks the beginning of the Middle Ear.
Middle Ear
The sound waves striking the eardrum create a vibration in the air-filled cavity of the middle ear. The sound waves are in the form of pressure differences and are transferred from here to the cochlea in the inner ear by means of three of the smallest bones in the human body. They are called Malleus (Hammer), Incus (Anvil) and Stapes (Stirrups). Stapes takes the award for the smallest bone in the human body. The sound here is still in the waveform. The sound information is transferred to the cochlea in the inner ear.
Inner Ear
Cochlea consists of several fluid-filled sac-like structures. The ear structures are covered with tiny hair, which converts the wave information into a form that we can understand. Here, the sound wave is converted into nerve impulses sent to the brain via the auditory nerve. This electrical impulse is perceived by us, which leads to our sense of hearing.
How do compressions in the air become sound in our heads? Find out the answer to this question by watching the video.
Hearing Range
So while it seems you can hear a sound immediately, it travels a long way before it is understood and becomes hearing. Hearing is the ability to perceive sound by detecting minute changes in pressure. This is done with the help of organs such as the ear. It is one of our five senses, and it defines how we see and experience the world around us.
Hearing range refers to the range of frequencies that can be detected or heard by a human or any other animal in consideration. The human ear and auditory system can detect frequencies between 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. This range is different for different animals. Dolphins, for example, can hear sound waves of frequencies up to 100 kHz.
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This article explains the phenomenon of hearing, the human ear and its various components. It’s an amazingly complex system, and it adds a whole new dimension to your experience of the world. Learn science the right way!
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