FIGURE 14.26 The structures of the ear. 1. Sound waves enter the ear and cause the eardrum. 3. ... to the cochlea, the sensing area of the inner ear, ... to vibrate. Basilar membrane Eardrum -Cochlea 2. Vibrations in the eardrum pass through a series of small bones .. 4. ... where vibrations in the fluid drive vibrations in the basilar membrane.
Properties of sound
A sound wave is a mechanical wave (or mechanical vibration) that transit through media such as gas (air), liquid (water), and solid (wood).
Quality Of Sound
A sound or a sound wave is defined as the energy produced due to the vibrations of particles in a medium. When any medium produces a disturbance or vibrations, it causes a movement in the air particles which produces sound waves. Molecules in the air vibrate about a certain average position and create compressions and rarefactions. This is called pitch which is defined as the frequency of sound. The frequency is defined as the number of oscillations in pressure per second.
Categories of Sound Wave
People perceive sound in different ways, like a medico student takes sound as vibration produced by objects reaching the human eardrum. A physicist perceives sound as vibration produced by an object, which produces disturbances in nearby air molecules that travel further. Both of them describe it as vibration generated by an object, the difference is one talks about how it is received and other deals with how it travels and propagates across various mediums.
Sound is detected when a sound wave causes the eardrum to vibrate (as shown). Typically, the diameter of the eardrum is about 8.4 mm in humans. When someone speaks to you in a normal tone of voice, the sound intensity at your ear is approximately 1.0 × 10-6 W/m2. How much energy is delivered to your eardrum each second?
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