How the Ear Works
Sounds from the outside world are picked up by the outer ear, which is made up of the … (1) and the ear canal. As the sound waves enter the ear, the … (2) serves to increase the loudness of those pitches that make it easier to understand speech. At the same time the ear canal protects another important part of the ear: the … (3) - a flexible, circular membrane which vibrates when touched by … (4). The sound vibrations continue their journey into the … (5), which contains three tiny bones called the ossicles, which are also known as the hammer, anvil and stirrup. These bones form the bridge from the eardrum into the … (6). They increase and amplify the sound vibrations even more, before safely transmitting them on to the inner ear via the … (7).
The inner ear, or … (8), resembles the circular shell of a snail, and houses a system of tubes which are filled with a watery fluid. As the sound waves pass through the oval window the fluid begins to move, setting tiny … (9) in motion. In turn, these hairs transform the vibrations into electrical impulses that travel along the … (10) to the brain itself.
Exactly how the brain actually translates these nerve impulses remains a mystery.
