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One of your major senses is the sense of
hearing. You sense sound with your ears, which operate
in a manner similar to how microphones detect sound. The
sound vibrations are detected in the ear, changed to
electrical signals and transmitted by the nerves to the
brain where they are processed and recorded. The
characteristics of sound include pitch and loudness. You
can also determine direction and distance from what you
hear. Sounds provide information about the environment
around you.
Questions you may have include:
The ear
The ear is the sense organ that detects
sound waves and sends those signals to the brain for
processing.
The way the ear works is that sound
waves vibrate the eardrum, just inside your ear. That
send waves through a fluid inside a narrow tube called
the cochlea, which in turn vibrates tiny hairs which are
tuned to the different pitches of the sound. Information
from the vibration of the hairs stimulates nerves which
send the signals to the brain for processing.
The way the ear works is similar to the
way a microphone works, where sound vibrates a
diaphragm, which causes electrical signals to travel
through a wire to a circuit card for processing.
Obviously, the operation of the ear is
much more complex. But it is much more flexible and does
not require batteries.
Sound characteristics
The sound you hear has both pitch and
loudness. You gather information by sensing and
processing waveforms with these characteristics.
The pitch or tone of a sound wave is
determined by its frequency, which is the wavelength
divided by the speed of sound. The sound you hear
consists of different frequencies or wavelengths, which
determine their pitch.
Humans and animals can only hear within
a limited range of pitch or frequencies, depending on
the species. This limitation affects their perception of
the world around you, since there are sounds that you or
animals can't hear that others can.
The amplitude of a sound wave determines
its loudness. There is a minimum amplitude required for
you to hear a sound. This varies with the species of
animal. Sounds that are too loud can injure your ear and
result in loss of hearing.
You can detect the direction a sound is
coming from and, in some cases, its distance. The
detection of direction is determined by comparing the
sound heard by each ear. The detection of distance is
more difficult and often relates to loudness and quality
of the sound heard.
As with all of your senses, the purpose
of hearing is to provide you with information of the
world or environment around you. The processing of the
sounds provides you with the information. Complex sounds
from other people talking results in the ability to
communicate.
Your ear senses sounds which consist of
pitch and loudness. Animals and humans can hear sounds
in a limited range. You can also determine direction and
sometimes distance through your hearing. |
