Download Ear - Flow in Sports

Ear
Biology 314
Mr. Doron
Featuring
• Function of the ear
• Anatomy of the ear
• Facts and questions / answers
Functions of the Ear
•
•
•
•
•
The ear is divided into three parts:
an external ear,
a middle ear and
an inner ear.
Each part performs an important function
in the process of hearing.
• The ear is designed to transfer sound
waves from the environment to the brain
External Ear
• The external ear consists of the auricle
and ear canal. These structures gather
the sound and direct it towards the ear
drum
Middle Ear
• The middle ear chamber lies between the
external and inner ear
• Consists of three small bones or ossicles
(the hammer, anvil and stirrup)
• These structures transmit sound vibrations
to the inner ear.
Inner Ear
• The inner ear is a fluid filled cavity in the
temporal bone
• Inner ear contains the semicicular canals
and the cochlea
• The cochlea contains the nerve ending for
hearing
Anatomy of the Ear
Auricle
Anatomy of the Ear
• Excellent website below that features the
ear with interactive slides…
• http://www.wisconline.com/objects/index_tj.asp?objid=AP
1502
Chain Reaction Involved in Hearing
• The ear registers the sound waves or
stimuli but the brain interprets them and
produces the sensation of hearing
Sounds
Stimuli
Ear
Receiver
cochlea
Transformer
Auditory
Conductor
Nerve
Brain
Analyser
HEARING
Tips for Good Hearing
• Remove the wax!
– Use Q-tips everyday but be gentle
– Do not force entry and hit the ear drum
• Exercise caution when diving
– If you swim very deep, go slowly. This allows time for
the Eustachian tubes to equalize the pressure on the
two sides of their eardrums
• Avoid high pitched sounds
– Human ear can perceive sound with frequency
ranging from 16-16000 vibrations per second. The
higher the note, the higher the frequency. High
pitched sounds can desensitize you to low pitched
sounds causing hearing loss. Middle C on piano =
256 vibrations / second; C one octave higher = 512;
scratching nails on the blackboard ?!?
Tips for Good Hearing
• Avoid loud sounds
– 80 dB (decibels or less). Easy on the i-pods. If
I can hear it coming out of your ears, it is too
loud. This can cause damage to your eardrum
(too much vibration) and cause hearing loss in
the long term (ringing of the ears the following
day is a sign that your ears are telling you that
the noise was too loud! Be careful…)
Tips for Good Hearing
Notice number of decibels of various
sounds on p264 of textbook
• Prolonged or repeated exposure to sound
levels of over 75 db can cause an
irreversible hearing loss.
• This loss often develops without the
person affected being aware of what is
happening
Questions
• Part of the ear that houses nerve ending
for hearing?
• Inner ear
• Purpose of ear wax?
• Traps foreign particles from entering the
inner ear
• Not too much though! Again, use Q-tips
gently.