The Human Ear and Hearing Range

Lab Brief #5

🎯 Your mission

Set it up. Test it. Be amazed.

⚡ The twist

Nature loves to surprise the careful watcher.

What you'll learn

The pinna funnels sound to the eardrum, which vibrates. Three small bones amplify that motion into the cochlea, where hair cells convert it into nerve impulses. A healthy young person hears roughly 20 Hz to 20 kHz, and the upper limit falls with age and noise exposure.

Key words

cochlea
The spiral inner-ear structure that converts vibrations into nerve signals.
hearing range
The band of frequencies an ear can detect, about 20 Hz to 20 kHz in young humans.

Make a hypothesis first

Before you start: write down what you think will happen, and why.

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Get ready

🧰 What you need

tone generator app
headphones
quiet room

⚠️ Safety first

Start at the lowest volume and raise it only slightly — testing at high volume can damage hearing.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Think about what you just learned: say what "cochlea" and "hearing range" mean in your own words before you start.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Using a tone generator at low volume, find the highest frequency each member of your group can hear. Plot the upper limit against age and describe the trend.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Record what actually happened, including anything that did not match what you expected.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Write a conclusion that answers the question this lesson opened with, and state your uncertainty.

Question 1 of 2

Which structure converts vibrations into nerve signals?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 2

A typical young person's upper hearing limit is about:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🔬 The more you look, the more nature shows you.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 2 right.

Next: Noise, Damage and Protection All lessons

🎯

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✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: This shows up in your everyday life more than you'd think.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Try one experiment in real life this week — even a tiny one.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “What's the most surprising thing you learned today?”

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