Taking a Closer Lookt at Our Auditory System

The ear is able to pick up sound waves and transfer them into nerve impulses that can be read by the brain. Background: A sound wave is pressure variations in air. Sound waves move through air the same as a wave in water. A sound wave is caused by an objects vibrations that cause the air surrounding it to vibrate. When the air vibrates it, the ear drum picks up the vibrations and translates them to the brain.

Our senses are very unique. They come from the energies contained in the information about the world. An accessory structure modifies the energy and a receptor transduces the energy into a neural response. The sensory nerves transfer the coded activity to the central nervous system, while the thalamus processes and then relays the neural responses. Lastly, the cerebral cortex receives input and produces the sensation and perception from the brain.

A solution for this particular acoustic wave equation is: “F” and “g” both show two twice-differentiable functions, and “c” again, is the speed of sound. [5] After reading the first paragraphs you may be wondering why are acoustic waves so important in normal life or “why would I ever need this equation?’ Acoustic waves are important because sound is all around us. When you think of the word “acoustic” a few words may come to mind. Guitars, stereos, and many other items involve acoustic waves. For example, when the bass on a stereo is turned all the way up you m... ... middle of paper ... ...smits the waves from one direction but as soon as it reflects it blocks them from the other.

In pulse echo imaging, the transducer converts the electric pulses given off by the beam former to an ultrasound beam. The transducer gives off several cycles of ultrasound beams and then waits to gather information from the echoes of those beams before giving off the next cycle of beams, this delay is necessary in order to escape misplacement of the returning echo on the screen (Kremkau 103). In summary, the medical imaging technology of ultrasound is founded on the world of physics. As we understand more and more about waves and how they functions, ultrasound imaging capabilities expand, allowing for the increasingly accurate diagnostic of medical problems.

How does our ears receive the message that they have to be at work, receiving and transmitting frequencies so the people can listen the beautiful sound of music, or even the terrible sound of a car crashing, but what is a sound wave? And how do sound waves work? A wave can be defined as a disturbance that travels through a medium, which carries energy. Medium is just the material in which the wave causes disturbance. On earth most of the mediums are, oxygen and water.

The waves then travel to the inner ear or cochlea which is the site of sound's transduction into chemical energy. Within the cochlea, sound waves travel through fluid which stimulates the stereocilia, small hair-like projections of hair cells along the basilar membrane. The actions of the stereocilia cause the release of K+, potentially depolarizing the cell (1). The flexibility of the basilar membrane allows stereocilia to move back and forth in response to the waves in the Cochlear fluid. Each stereocilium is linked to another through structures called "tip links" (1) , (3) As the stereocilia move towards the tallest ones, the tip links cause ion channels to open, depolarizing the cell and allowing free K+ to move into the cell (1).

Air molecules in this layer now being at higher pressure than the next undisturbed layer transmits their motion to the adjacent layer. That layer further transmits its motion to the another layer and so on. Mean while the body takes a backswing with the result that the air around it now gets rarefied causing a decrease in its density and temperature. This rarefaction of air follows its compression at the same speed although the air does not change its average position. Thus with the continuous outward and inward swings of the body that follows a definite pattern of compression and rarefaction of layers and this effect progresses outward from the body in all directions and this is known as wave motion of sound.

From this point, vibration of the connective membrane (oval window) transforms mechanical motion into a pressure wave in fluid. This pressure wave enters and hence passes vibrations into the fluid filled structure called the cochlea. The cochlea contains two membranes and between these two membranes, are specialized neurons or receptors called Hair cells. Once vibrations enter the cochlea, they cause the lower membrane (basilar membrane) to move in respect to the upper membrane (i.e. --the tectorial membrane in which the hair cells are embedded).

The human ear picks up sound from every direction then translates the data into something that your brain can understand. The ear is unique unlike your sense of smell; taste and eyesight your hearing system relies solely on your physical movement. Objects produce sound when they vibrate in matter, these could be gas such as air, solid like earth or even liquid such as water. Usually we hear and pick up sounds travelling through the air in our atmosphere. If something moves in the atmosphere it will move the air particles around the particle, carrying the vibration through the air.

Understanding music and how human’s hear and understand it helps further our understanding of the mind, the body and music itself. Sound is vibrations through a medium, usually air when discussing human hearing. These movements in the air fluctuate in pressure, creating a wave like pattern. This pattern is based on the compression of the air rather than a literal wave-form however it still has the characteristics of a wave. Since it has the characteristics of waves it can be interpreted as a mathematical wave.