Final answer:
Sound is produced by vibrations, which travel through air to the ear canal and then to the eardrum. The vibrations pass through tiny bones in the middle ear to the cochlea, where they are converted into nerve impulses that the brain interprets as sound.
Step-by-step explanation:
Hearing and the Path of Sound Through the Ear
A sound is first produced by making something vibrate. The sound then travels through a medium, like air, to reach the ears, which are the parts of the body that allow for sounds to be heard. Let's explore the journey of how a car horn sound travels to your ear:
- The sound waves travel to the ear canal (external auditory canal in the figure), which is a tube-shaped opening in the ear.
- At the end of the ear canal, the sound waves hit the eardrum (tympanic membrane), causing it to vibrate much like the head of a drum.
- The vibrations from the eardrum travel through the three tiny bones of the middle ear: the malleus (hammer), the incus (anvil), and the stapes (stirrup), which amplify the vibrations.
- The amplified vibrations pass to the cochlea in the inner ear, a coiled tube filled with liquid.
- The movement of the liquid in the cochlea causes tiny hair cells to bend, which, in turn, send nerve impulses to the auditory nerve.
- Finally, these nerve impulses travel to the brain, which interprets them as sound, allowing us to recognize and understand what we are hearing.
The human ear is an intricate system consisting of the outer, middle, and inner ear, all working together to convert sound waves into electrical signals that the brain can interpret.