Inside your ear, sounds set off a complex chain of events which involves some of the smallest bones in your body. These bones transmit the sound waves to tiny hair-like sensors that dance in tune to the world outside.
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How your ear works by the BBC
Transcript
00:01
Inside your ear, sounds set off a complex chain of events.
00:07
They enter as pressure waves which push and pull your eardrum, making it vibrate.
00:20
On the other side of the eardrum, these vibrations set a series of bones jiggling.
00:31
They end with the smallest bone in your entire body, called the stirrup. It's smaller than a grain of rice.
00:41
These bones allow you to hear.
00:45
If a sound is too loud,
00:50
a muscle pulls the stirrup away from the most sensitive parts.
00:55
Temporarily at least, you go a bit deaf but the rest of your ear is protected.
01:06
Beyond the stirrup is a fluid-filled cavity,
01:09
your Cochlea.
01:14
The incoming sound waves tickle clumps of tiny hairlike sensors on the floor.
01:22
These begin to dance to the sounds of the world outside.
01:29
You have 30,000 sensors. Each picks out a different part of the sound and sends it straight to your brain.