Hearing
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Sound waves & music chapter: Physics Online Classroom
The human ear: Physics Online Classroom
Eavesdropping on elephants:
Elephant ESP? Humans can hear many of an elephant's calls, from the loud, shrill trumpet to low moans and grumbles. However, people used to believe that elephants also used ESP to communicate with each other to explain how a male elephant can avoid other male elephants but are able to find female elephants that are ready to mate, which occur once every couple of years. Solving the mystery: Katy Payne, a bioacoustics researcher at Cornell University visiting elephant display at Washington Park Zoo, realized that the air throbbed near the elephants. Was something going on that people could not hear? She recorded "elephant talk" and found that the low rumbles that people could hear were only a small part of an elephant's way of communicating. The elephants were using infrasonic sound waves (below waves of human hearing) to communicate. These deep elephant sounds people could hear were actually the overtones of sounds so low and powerful they could travel without interference over long distances. In fact, these calls can be heard by other elephants and felt as vibrations in the ground many kilometers away. The wide variety of communication methods that have evolved demonstrates the importance of communication among all creatures and future research might enhance our understanding of many more methods of communication.
Ears also detect change in position:
When the head changes direction, the moving fluid in canals of the inner ear causes hair cells to bend and send nerve impulses to the brain, enabling the brain to determine body position.
e.
Sound waves & music chapter: Physics Online Classroom
The human ear: Physics Online Classroom
Eavesdropping on elephants:
Elephant ESP? Humans can hear many of an elephant's calls, from the loud, shrill trumpet to low moans and grumbles. However, people used to believe that elephants also used ESP to communicate with each other to explain how a male elephant can avoid other male elephants but are able to find female elephants that are ready to mate, which occur once every couple of years. Solving the mystery: Katy Payne, a bioacoustics researcher at Cornell University visiting elephant display at Washington Park Zoo, realized that the air throbbed near the elephants. Was something going on that people could not hear? She recorded "elephant talk" and found that the low rumbles that people could hear were only a small part of an elephant's way of communicating. The elephants were using infrasonic sound waves (below waves of human hearing) to communicate. These deep elephant sounds people could hear were actually the overtones of sounds so low and powerful they could travel without interference over long distances. In fact, these calls can be heard by other elephants and felt as vibrations in the ground many kilometers away. The wide variety of communication methods that have evolved demonstrates the importance of communication among all creatures and future research might enhance our understanding of many more methods of communication.
Ears also detect change in position:
When the head changes direction, the moving fluid in canals of the inner ear causes hair cells to bend and send nerve impulses to the brain, enabling the brain to determine body position.