Did you hear something? Maybe the sound you heard was as quiet as
your cat licking her paws. Or maybe it was loud, like a siren going by.
Sounds are everywhere, and you have two cool parts on your body that let
you hear them all: your ears!
Your ears are in charge of collecting sounds, processing them, and sending sound signals to your brain. And that's not all — your ears also help you keep your balance. So if you bend over to pick up your cat, you won't fall down — or even worse — fall on your cat. Meow!
The ear is made up of three different sections: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. These parts all work together so you can hear and process sounds.
The brain then works out what you are hearing.
Your ears are in charge of collecting sounds, processing them, and sending sound signals to your brain. And that's not all — your ears also help you keep your balance. So if you bend over to pick up your cat, you won't fall down — or even worse — fall on your cat. Meow!
The ear is made up of three different sections: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. These parts all work together so you can hear and process sounds.
Outer ear
The outer ear is called the pinna or auricle (say: or-ih-kul).
This is the part of the ear that people can see, and also the ear canal. They act like a funnel to catch sound waves and direct them to the ear drum.
(A canal is a pathway for water, but the ear canal is a pathway for sound)
Middle ear
This is a small air-filled space on the inside of the eardrum.
There are 3 tiny bones called ossicles (oss-ik-uls) in this part.
They are called the hammer, anvil and stirrup (because that is what they look like).
When the sound waves move the eardrum, these bones move and pass on
the vibration to the very much smaller oval shaped window of the cochlea
(the bit that looks like a shell). The hammer is touching the ear drum
so it shakes when the sound comes through, and the movement goes right
through the anvil to the stirrup, which is touching the window of the cochlea.
Inner ear
The cochlea has fluid in it, which moves due to the vibrations and
bends hairs on the outside of cells lining the cochlea. There are about
17,000 hair cells in each ear, so they really are tiny. They are not
like the hair on your head
Some of these hair cells (the 'inner hair cells') create an electrical impulse (signal), which is sent along the auditory nerve
to the brain. Most of them (the 'outer' ones), however, are like tiny
muscle cells, which react to the vibrations in the fluid by trembling
and shaking; in this way they work like high quality amplifiers and make
the vibrations much stronger and clearer for the smaller number of
inner hair cells.
The brain then works out what you are hearing.
The semi-circular canals in your inner ear contain fluid too. They send messages to your brain to help you keep your balance when you move.
Hearing
If your ears are working well, you hear sounds all the time. You can't switch your ears off, even when you are asleep.
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