Answer:
Our ears are subdivided into three parts:
- External ear - where is the ear canal.
- Middle ear or tympanic cavity - where the eardrum, anvil, hammer and stapes meet.
- Internal ear - where the stirrup, the auditory nerve and the snail (also known as the cochlea) are concentrated.
Upon reaching our external ears, sound waves travel through the ear canal to the eardrum. This, in turn, vibrates when it identifies even very small pressure variations caused by sound waves.
The eardrum vibrations warn two bones of the tympanic cavity (hammer and anvil) that there is a sound and these then trigger another bone (the stirrup) that passes this information to the inner ear.
As they pass through each of these obstacles, the sound waves are amplified and reach the ear snail.
The inner ear is composed of the snail-shaped cochlea. It contains small hairs that vibrate when sound propagates. This propagation occurs easily because of a fluid within the inner ear, which stimulates the nerve cells of the auditory nerve by sending these signals to the brain, making us perceive sound.
