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The ear is a sophisticated, sensitive and complex organ, which consists of three main sections:
Is made up of the external cartilaginous part of the ear and the ear canal. The eardrum is located at the end of the canal and forms the boundary to the middle ear.
The outer ear acts as a kind of satellite dish that picks up sound waves and conducts them to the eardrum, causing it to vibrate.
Is an air-filled space, whose air pressure is regulated by the Eustachian tube, which connects the middle ear to the back of the throat. There are three tiny bones in the middle ear called the ossicles (malleus, incus and stapes). This chain of bones forms a lever mechanism, conducting the vibrations from the eardrum to the inner ear (cochlea).
Attached to the bones are two small muscles, which are activated when very loud sounds reach the ear. These muscles work to reduce the effects of excessive sound pressure before reaching the inner ear.
Or cochlea, is shaped like a snail shell and filled with fluid. The oval window connects the middle ear and the inner ear. The stapes footplate vibrates against the oval window and functions as a piston moving the fluid of the inner ear.
This movement of the fluid activates the hair cells in the inner ear (there are about 20,000). When these hair cells are activated, they send impulses via the acoustic nerve to the brain, which perceives these impulses as sound.
Via these fantastic, winding ways, the ear is able to pick up sound waves, transform them into bone vibration then to fluid movement and finally to nerve impulses that can be interpreted by the brain. Even the slightest flaw in the complex system can compromise hearing ability.