When you do something that makes a sound, why does it produce noise?

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For example when you crumple a piece of paper, why does it make that crunching noise? Why the the paper not simply fall into itself?

In: Physics

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Sound waves are physical waves in the air, changes in preasure of the air.

When they travel into your ear, it goes through a special organ called the Cochlea.

The sound makes a thin membrane in the cochlea vibrate and travel along to special cells called hair cells. These cells have little hair like bits connected to the membrane that ppick up the fine vibrations, allowing it to “feel” precisely how the sound wave is moving those little hairs.

The cells send this information about how the hairs are moving due to the sound waves to the brain through the cochlear nerve.

The brain uses this information to make sense of the sound. It analyzes all the specific ways it moved allong the choclear membrane to determain things like how loud it is, what direction it came from and more. It also processes it to see if there are certain patterns it recognizes like those you find in language, allowing it to make sense and translate sound waves into information we can understand.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Sound is just your brain’s interpretation of vibrations in the air, picked up by the ears. If something makes vibrations in the air at a frequency and sufficient intensity that can be picked up by our ears, it is interpreted by your brain as sound. Crumpling paper causes pressure changes (vibrations) in the air that fit those frequency/intensity requirements to be picked up and interpreted as sound.