Eli5: How do ears work?

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Many animals have ears or some way of hearing, But how exactly does the sound travel into the ear and process into what we hear?

In: Biology

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Simply put vibrations (sound waves) go into the ear, and your brain translates the sounds (vibrations) into language.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Sound is reflected into the inside of your ear by the pinna (soft floppy thing we usually refer to as our ears)

Sound waves hit our eardrum and the wave is sent through a few bones and eventually hits the cochlea, an organ on the inside of your ear that has some fluid in it. The sound waves disturb that fluid. The disturbed fluid moves causes some special cells (auditory hair cells) to be dragged across a membrane. When these cells are dragged, it causes a signal to be sent to the brain to interpret what you just heard.

Higher pitched noises are detected at the beginning of the cochlea, while lower pitched noises are detected at the apex of the cochlea.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Sound wave travel through the air and into the ear canal where tiny bones (incus & stapes) translates the vibrations of the sound waves to sound that your brain can understand.