Chapter 9: The Mechanics of Hearing
We’ll cover the auditory senses in the three following chapters. This first one addresses the physics of sound as well as the anatomy, mechanics, and neural systems in the inner ear. It will include the perceptual and physical characteristics of sound including loudness and amplitude, pitch and frequency, timbre and quality, what are the three parts of ear and their specific functions, and how sound transduction happens in the inner ear.
Learning Objectives
- Describe how humans use sound in their daily lives
- Describe what a sound wave is.
- Describe the relationship between the physical characteristics of sound and loudness and pitch
- Describe the frequency range of human hearing and range of frequencies at which human hearing is typically most sensitive. .
- Describe the parts of the ear and their function
- Explain how sound wave frequency is encoded in the cochlea
- Describe the action of the inner and outer haircells
- Describe the difference between simple sounds and normal real-world sounds (complex sounds).
- Describe timbre and what contributes to it.
This chapter was created by Elhan Ahmed, Margaret Kaufman, Cassie Kiehl, Izzy Kosobud, Collin Martin, Nicole McCue, Robert Moss, Mona Osman, Minh Phan, Han Phung.
