How do our ears detect sound?

Discover how your ears work to detect sound! Learn about ear parts, vibrations, and hearing ranges.

Draw what you THINK is happening in our ears for us to hear sounds. Describe what you think is happening in our ears for us to hear sounds. (Explain what you drew.) How the Ears Work What are two things you noticed in the video? What parts of the ear described in the video remind you of anything we have already investigated in class? Match the part of the ear with its main function. Use information from the video for help! Outer Ear (pinna and ear canal) Collect sounds from the environment Middle Ear (eardrum and ossicles) Turns the sound into vibrations Inner Ear (cochlea and vestibule) Changes the vibrations into nerve signals How do we hear different sounds? Use evidence from the video to explain how we are able to hear different sounds. (Sounds with different pitches.) Some sounds we hear are very loud, while others are very quiet. Make a claim for which part of the ear you think helps us to hear loud vs quiet sounds. Give an explanation for why you think that. Can we hear all sounds??The human ear typically can hear sounds from sources that vibrate as slowly as 20 vibrations per second (20 Hz) and rapidly as 20,000 vibrations per second. Any sound with frequency below the range of human hearing is known as infrasound; any sound with frequency above human hearing range is known as ultrasound. Many animals can hear frequencies of sound outside the range of human hearing. Look at the chart below. What animal is able to hear sounds at a lower frequency than people? Dolphin Mouse Elephant Which animal can hear the widest range of sound vibrations? Cat Dolphin Beluga Whale The mouse, bat, and beluga whale all hear about the same range of frequencies. How would you describe the types of sound they hear? High Pitched Low Pitched Why are humans not able to hear the sound a dog whistle makes? The frequency of the whistle is too high. The frequency of the whistle is too low.