What is Hearing: Definition and 63 Discussions

Hearing, or auditory perception, is the ability to perceive sounds by detecting vibrations, changes in the pressure of the surrounding medium through time, through an organ such as the ear. The academic field concerned with hearing is auditory science.
Sound may be heard through solid, liquid, or gaseous matter. It is one of the traditional five senses. Partial or total inability to hear is called hearing loss.
In humans and other vertebrates, hearing is performed primarily by the auditory system: mechanical waves, known as vibrations, are detected by the ear and transduced into nerve impulses that are perceived by the brain (primarily in the temporal lobe). Like touch, audition requires sensitivity to the movement of molecules in the world outside the organism. Both hearing and touch are types of mechanosensation.

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  1. T

    Hearing Damage from High Pitched Noises

    Does a loud noise that is beyond my range of hearing still do damage to my ears?
  2. D

    Time elapsed between seeing a crash and hearing the crash

    Homework Statement A race car fan is sitting in the first row at the beginning of a 1.5 km front stretch of a racetrack. A race car driver coming around the final turn is approaching the fan’s position at 99.5 m/s. The driver sees a car wreck ahead and slams on the brakes causing the car to...
  3. E

    Medical Selective Hearing: How Brain & Hearing Work Together

    As I was sitting at a restaurant, surrounded by conversations going on at nearby tables, it came into my thoughts how fascinating the brain and hearing work together. By this, I mean here are various conversations going on at one time, all equal in my ability to hear each one as well as the...
  4. B

    Hearing Problems in University: Seeking Solutions

    Hello all. Long time no see. I'm currently in university studying chemistry, and I relised that in general conversations and just lectures I tend to miss out on a lot of the words i.e. I can't actually make them out. I can hear the murmuring, but I'm having increasing trouble actually...
  5. W

    Intensity of sounds - Hearing Aid

    A person wears a hearing aid, which makes a sounds louder by 50 dB. This a) means the sound intensity is increased by 100,000 times. b) This also means that the amplitude of the soundwave is increased by ______ times? I know Intensity is portportinal to (Amplitude)^2... so does that mean I...
  6. P

    Hearing outside noise while in an encolsed room

    The theory is that sound is heard because of fluctuations in the air molecules that surround us but why is that we can hear noise coming from outside when we are in an enclosed room? Is it the case that air molecules are able to travel through the walls of an ordinary room?
  7. E

    How do people with hearing and vision impairments use computers?

    How do people who can't see or hear.. use computers.. I know there must be some way for them to... but what is it?
  8. J

    Hearing people mispronounce nuclear

    It is a little disconcerting to hear public officeholders mispronounce the word “nuclear.” And no, I am not going to name any names. I remember a local news story some years back. A food product that was being sold in grocery stores--probably it was milk--was found to have aflatoxin in it...
  9. check

    Evolution of ears and hearing.

    Yes yes, I’m a slacker. I have a short paper (2500 words max) due on Friday for an Earth Sci. class about ‘some aspect of biological evolution’. My chosen topic is the evolution of ears and hearing in animals. I chose it because I’m pretty sure no one else is doing it…and the evolution of eyes...
  10. Mk

    How does loud music and noise affect hearing?

    Well, you know the question. :smile:
  11. D

    How Long Does Sound Take to Travel from the Voicebox to the Ear?

    Hi all Does anyone know the time delay through the head between the voicebox producing sound and the ear registering it? Thanks in advance Dave
  12. P

    Finding Distance from a Crash with Asymmetric Hearing

    Sound Problem... A swimmer with one ear underwater and one ear above water in air, hears a crash. She hears the crash in the water first where the Veloctiy of the wave in water was 1500m/s. The air temperature is 20°C and she hears the wave again after 2.0 seconds but this time she hears it...
  13. M

    The little fly with excellent hearing.

    I have just read an article about a species of fly (I wish I could remember the name of the fly, but I can't ("Omri something-or-other")) that have the hearing precision of an owl (it is said to be able to pin-point an object (through hearing) with a precision that is within two compass...
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