How Hearing Works

How Hearing Works

Your ears are extraordinary organs. They pick up all the sounds around you and then translate this information into a form your brain can understand. One of the most remarkable things about this process is that it is completely mechanical. Your sense of smell, taste and vision all involve chemical reactions, but your hearing system is based solely on physical movement.

In this article, we'll look at the mechanical systems that make hearing possible. We'll trace the path of a sound, from its original source all the way to your brain, to see how all the parts of the ear work together. When you understand everything they do, it's clear that your ears are one of the most incredible parts of your body!

To understand how your ears hear sound, you first need to understand just what sound is.

An object produces sound when it vibrates in matter. This could be a solid, such as earth; a liquid, such as water; or a