Sound and the Ear Flashcards
What is Wavelength?
Wavelength is the distance between one peak to the next closest peak
Frequency is what?
Frequency is the number of sound waves in a second and is measured in hertz (Hz) 1Hz is 1 sound wave per second
What is amplitude, how can you see it in a sound wave and how does it relate to energy?
Amplitude is the height of a wave, the taller it is the louder the sound is, the smaller it is the quieter the sound is
Low frequency is
Low pitch
High frequency is
High pitch
Does sound travel faster in gas, liquid or solids
Solids as the particles are closer together so the atoms hit each other and move faster
What are waves?
They are transfers of energy, not matter
Why doesn’t sound travel in space?
Because there is no matter for it to travel through.
What is another word for sound vibrations?
Oscilations
Give an example of a high pitch / frequency sound
Someone screaming, bird tweeting
Give an example of a low pitched/ frequency sound
Tuba playing a low note, airplane flying overhead, lawnmower
What is the pinna
It’s the funnel for the sound into the eardrum (it’s the external part of your ear)
What are the cossicles and what is their function?
Three tiny bones in the ear that transmit vibrations from the eardrum to the cochlea
What does the cochlea look like ?
A tiny snail in the internal part of the ear. The cochlea is a fluid-filled, spiral-shaped cavity found in the inner ear.
What is the cochlea’s function?
Sound waves are changed into electrical impulses that the brain eventually interprets as individual sound frequencies
What does the auditory nerve do?
It carries auditory sensory information from the cochlea directly to the brain
How does the eardrum work?
Sound waves make the eardrum vibrate, which is a tough layer of tissue
What is rarefraction?
When longitudinal waves are far apart rather than bunched up.
What is compression?
When longitudinal waves are bunched rather than far apart
What are examples of transverse waves?
ripples on the surface of the water, vibrations on a guitar string, a Mexican waves, electromagnetic waves (light waves, microwaves and radio waves), seismic S-waves
What are examples of longitudinal waves?
Sound waves, ultra-sound waves and seismic P-waves
What are transverse waves?
Transverse waves are waves at a right angle to the direction of the wave.
What are Longitudinal waves?
Longitudinal waves are waves which are along the same direction as the direction of travel.
What are echos?
Echos are when the sound reflects off a surface or several surfaces. There is always a delay between making the sound and hearing the echo.
How do we hear sound?
The particles start to vibrate. The vibrations are passed onto the ear drum ossicles and the cochlear signals are passed from cochlea to the brain by the auditory nerve and the brain interprets these signals as sounds.
What is the human hearing range
20-20,000 hertz
