The outer ear
The outside part of the ear – which is the part that you can see – is called the pinna. The pinna collects sound waves from the air.
Sound waves cannot be seen. They travel in the air – just like rings spread in water if a frog jumps in or you throw a rock. Look at the picture at the top of the screen or click on the picture on the right to see how.
Air carries the sound waves towards the ear where the pinna helps pick them up and lead them into the ear canal (no.1 in the picture). From there, the sound waves move on towards the eardrum (no. 2 in the picture), which is at the end of the ear canal.
When sound reaches the eardrum it vibrates – just like when you hit a real drum!
The middle ear
The vibrations from the eardrum continue into the middle ear, where we find the three tiniest bones in the human body. They are called the hammer (no. 3), the anvil (no. 4) and the stirrup (no. 5).
When the sound waves reach these little bones, they also begin to vibrate.
The inner ear
When the tiny bones vibrate, they help the sound waves reach the inner ear.
The inner ear is called the cochlea (no. 8 in the picture) and looks just like the shell of a snail. This ‘shell’ contains fluid, and thousands of little hairs.
