How+does+your+sense+of+hearing+work?+Part+1

HOW DOES YOUR SENSE OF HEARING WORK? contributed by: Harrison T Date of Creation: 9/30/2011 Humans and animals use their hearing every day. People hear things when a wave of sound comes from something. The sound wave enters through the end of the ear, down the ear canal. The sound then hits the ear drum, which vibrates. The vibrations cause the hammer to hit the anvil which sends the vibrations into the stirrup. The stirrup sends the sound to the cochlea. The cochlea is filled with a liquid, that when it vibrates, moves around. The sound is then sent to the brain via the nerves. The brain then tells you what the sound is, or what it thinks that it is. It will also say where it thinks the sound is coming from.

Figure 1: Sound Waves. The more spread out, the lower the sound

Figure 2: The Anatomy of an ear.

RELATED TOPIC 1

Amplitude

Amplitude is sound measured in decibels (dB). Zero decibels is set to be the threshold of human hearing. Every 10dB increase represents a sound that is 10 times louder or more intense. For example, 30dB is 10 times louder than 20dB and 100 times louder than 10dB. Normal speaking voice is around 60dB. The threshold of pain caused by sound is around 130dB

GLOSSARY

Ear Drum- a membrane in the __ [|ear] __ canal between the [|external ear] and the [|middle ear] ; tympanic membrane. Hammer- small bone in the ear Anvil- small bone in the ear Cochlea- A spiral shaped cavity that is inside the human ear and some mammals

CITATIONS Wikipedia. "Sense". Wikipedia. Web. 13 September 2011

Light, Douglas. “//The Senses”//. 2005. Print Landau, Elaine. “The Sense of Hearing”. 2009. Print.