Sensing Sound Essay, Research Paper

Sensing Sound

When we think of hearing, most only consider the outer ear. In reality, the inner ear is the part that does all of the work. The outer ear works as a reverse megaphone, which collects the sounds that we hear and brings them into the inner part of the ear. Ears are located on either side of the head to help with sound localization. Sound localization is how we determine where the different sounds are coming from. The outer ears also help to amplify sounds to different degrees.

Sound is defined in the psychology book as, “the movement of air molecules brought about by the vibration of an object.” This basically means that all objects create certain vibrations in the air. These vibrations make different sounds at different frequencies. Sound travels through the air in the form of wave vibrations. the vibrations are picked up by the outer ear, and brought into the inner ear. The auditory canal, is the passageway that leads to the eardrum. The vibrations travel from the outer ear, through the auditory canal, and then into the eardrum. The eardrum acts like a drum. It vibrates like a drum when sound waves hit it. The more intense the sound, the more it vibrates.

The vibrations from the eardrum are then transmitted into the middle ear. The middle ear contains three bones called, the hammer, the anvil, and the stirrup. These three bones act as a set of levers, transmitting and strengthening the vibrations into the oval window. The oval window leads to the inner ear, where the ear changes the sound vibrations into material that can be submitted to the brain. When sound enters the inner ear, it moves through a coiled passageway called the cochlea. The cochlea is filled with tiny hair cells. When these hair cells are bent by the vibrations, a neural message is transmitted to the brain. This information is sorted by the brain and turned into distinguishable material which you hear.