How Ear Converts Sounds Into Electric Nerve Pulses
The ear performs the task of converting the mechanical oscillations of a sound wave into electric nerve impulses. Thus, it is similar to a microphone, which also converts the mechanical oscillations of sound
into electric signals. However, the ear is unmatched in its ability to accommodate a wide range of intensities of sound.
The human ear has three main parts: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. The outer ear consists of the auricle and the ear canal. The auricle serves to funnel sound waves into the ear, especially waves arriving from the front of the listener. The ear canal is a tube, about 2.7 cm long, closed off at the inner end by the eardrum, or tympanum. The ear canal guides sound waves toward the eardrum, and also enhances sound waves of a frequency of a few thousand hertz, which are in resonance with the standing-wave modes of the air column in the canal.
