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Human Ear

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Question

What is the name of passage in the outer ear which carries sound waves to the eardrum?

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Solution

Sound waves enter the outer ear and travel through a narrow passageway called the ear canal, which leads to the eardrum.

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Q. Put these terms, which describe the way sound travels from the air through your ear, in the correct sequence:
three tiny bones in the middle ear vibrate;your outer ear catches the sound and moves it inside your ear; a special nerve carries messages about sound to your brain; your eardrum begins to vibrate; liquid in the coiled tube of your inner ear vibrates

Q. When a sound wave enters the ear, it sets the eardrum into oscillation, which in turn causes oscillation of 3 tiny bones in the middle ear called ossicles. This oscillation is finally transmitted to the fluid filled in inner portion of the ear termed as inner ear, the motion of the fluid disturbs hair calls within the inner ear which transmit nerve impulses to the brain with information that a sound is present. The three bones present in the middle ear are named as hammer, anvil and stirrup. Out of these the stirrup is the smallest one and this only connects the middle ear to inner ear as shown in the figure below. The area of stirrup and its extent of connection with the inner ear limits the sensitivity of the human ear. Consider a person's eat whose moving part of the eardrum has an area of about 43 mm

^{2}

and the area of stirrup is about 3.2 mm

^{2}

. The mass of ossicles is negligible. As a result, force exerted by sound wave in air on eardrum and ossicles is same as the force exerted by ossicles on the inner ear. Consider a sound wave having maximum pressure fluctuation of

3 \times 10^{- 2}

Pa from its normal equilibrium pressure value which is wqual to

10^{5}

Pa. Frequency of sound wave is 1200 Hz.
Data: Velocity of sound wave in air is 332 m/s. Velocity of sound wave in fluid (present in inner ear) is 1500 m/s. Bulk modulus of air is

1.42 \times 10^{5}

Pa. Bulk modulus of fluid is

2.18 \times 10^{9}

If then person is using an hearing aid, which increase the sound intensity level by 30 dB, then by what factor the intensity of given sound wave change as perceived by inner ear?

Q. Choose the correct sequence based on transmission of the sound waves from the outer ear to the brain.

Q. Match column I with column II and select the correct option from the given codes.

Column I	Column II
A. Pinna	(i) Collects vibrations in the air which produces sound
B. Ear canal	(ii) Passage for sound wave from pinna to ear drum
C. Tympanic membrane	(iii) Transfers sound wave to ear ossicles
D. Ear ossicles	(iv) Increases the efficiency of transmission of sound waves to the inner ear
E. Cochlea	(v) Has hearing receptors
F. Eustachian tube	(vi) Equalises the pressure on both sides of ear drum
G. Auditory nerves	(vii) Impulse transfer from organ of Corti to auditory cortex in temporal lobe of cerebrum

Q. 1.The ears are fragile instruments.
A. These impulses travel via the auditory nerve to the brain, where they are interpreted as, say, words, music or an approaching vehicle.
B. When sound waves enter the ear, they cause the eardrum to vibrate.
C. These, in turn, stimulate auditory nerve fibers, each attuned to a different frequency.
D. The vibrations are transmitted to the cochlea, in the inner ear, where fluid carries them to neatly organized rows of hair cells.
6. Damage to this delicate apparatus results from both volume and length of exposure to sound.

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