👂 HOW EARS TURN SOUND INTO HEARING
PAGE 1 OF 5 · SOUND ENTERS THE EAR
WAVES
SOUND IS MOVING AIR
When something makes a noise, it pushes air back and forth in waves. Those waves travel through the air like ripples in a pond. Your outer ear catches them and funnels them down the ear canal. At the end sits a thin, tight membrane called the eardrum. Sound waves make the eardrum wiggle, just like tapping a drum skin. That wiggle is the start of hearing. Without moving air, there is no sound to hear in space.
⚡ DID YOU KNOW?
Sound needs a medium like air or water to travel. In empty space there is no air, so astronauts use radios instead of shouting through helmets.
WAVE!
OUTER
👂 Your pinna, the part you see, helps collect sound and aim it into the canal.
🔊 Loud sounds make bigger wiggles; quiet sounds make tiny ones.
🔊 Loud sounds make bigger wiggles; quiet sounds make tiny ones.
DRUM
🥁 The eardrum is paper-thin but tough, and it moves many times each second.
⚡ Fast wiggles mean high notes; slow wiggles mean low bass sounds.
⚡ Fast wiggles mean high notes; slow wiggles mean low bass sounds.