How does the Ear Work

The Ear has three parts:

The outer ear consists of the pinna and the ear canal. The pinna collects sound, and the ear canal funnels it toward the ear drum.

The middle ear consists of the tympanic membrane (ear drum), ossicles (ear bones), middle ear space, muscles, tendons and ligaments. The ear drum changes the sound energy into mechanical-vibration energy that travels across the ossicles. This movement increases the mechanical-vibration energy by a 2:1 ratio. The first bone is the malleus (hammer), the second is the incus (anvil) and the last is the stapes (stirrup). The stapes vibrates in and out of a window that leads to the fluid in the inner ear.

The inner ear consists of three main parts: the vestibule, the semi-circular canals and the cochlea. The movement of the stapes sets up waves in the inner ear fluid. Hair cells sense the waves and cause electrical impulses to be sent up the VIIIth nerve (or hearing and balance nerve) to the brain for interpretation.