In: Root » Health » Medicine and alternative
As one of the 5 traditional senses, hearing, also known as audition, is a very essential sense for humans to have. People who can't hear have a condition called deafness. In the past, those who could not hear were often left out of conversations and other social situations. Gratefully, over One hundred years ago, with the advent of electricity, hearing aids were created, giving those with hearing problems a chance to regain their social position and overall enjoyment of life. The modern hearing aid is a superb device that is comfortable to wear, discerning in fashion, and provides the broadest technological advantages for wearers. In order to understand what a hearing aid does for those with hearing difficulties, one must first visualize how we hear. By looking at the physics of sound, the path of a sound wave, the anatomy of the human ear, differences in function between human ears and the ears of animals, hearing under different circumstances, and alternatives to traditional hearing, one can visualize the entire complex process fairly easily.The Physics of Sound Sound is carried through every medium, including liquid, solid, plasma and gas. When carried through a solid, it is both a longitudinal wave and a transverse wave. However, when sound is transferred through the other mediums, it is only a longitudinal wave, also known as a compression wave. Longitudinal waves are areas of different pressure, deviating from the equilibrium pressure. In order to classify a sound wave, they should be examined by the general properties of all waves. Frequency Sound travels quickly. Not nearly as fast as light, of course, but fast nonetheless. Sound travels through various mediums at distinct speeds, but this can always be measured by being proportional to the square root of the ratio of the stiffness of the medium to its density. Also, sound travels at different speeds due to the temperature of the medium. Here are a few examples. In 20 degree air, sound travels at 767 mph. This is a substantial difference in how sound behaves in various environments. How loud something is can be referred to as intensity or volume, and volume is valued in a unit of measure called decibels. The essential decibel levels for those thinking about getting a hearing aid are transferred from common sources like a person speaking or a TV that has been turned on. Here is a list of other sounds and decibel levels. TV set turned on, 60 decibels Damage will occur if exposed to this level for a long time duration, 90 decibels Damage will occur if exposed to this level for a short time, 120 decibels Damage to one's hearing is one of the few things which the human body cannot repair. Once some of the auditory nerves have been damaged, they are not supplanted or fixed. The Anatomy of the Human Ear The ear is divided into 3 main sections. Outer ear. The outer ear collects the sound waves that are emitted by various people, animals, and things. It is made up of cartilage, and is sometimes pierced for human adornment purposes. Damage to the outer ear is almost always easy to repair. Middle ear. The middle ear is made up of an air filled cavity behind the ear drum and includes the hammer, anvil, and stirrup bones. It amplifies the sound. Inner ear. Imbedded in the densest bone in the body, the temporal bone, and contains small cells that release chemical neurotransmitters when they are stimulated. The process of getting a sound wave to amplifying it to translating it into a form that the brain can understand is genuinely amazing. Hearing aids help the middle ear by magnifying the signal enough for the inner ear to interpret it and send the message to the brain. When the brain experiences these signals, it interprets them as the various sounds which we all know. The path of sound from source to the outer ear, middle ear, inner ear, and then brain where it is perceived as a sound is a long one. However, because speed travels extremely quickly, and the nerves in the ear receive and send the signal to the brain promptly, what we see and what we hear are in sync. An entertaining test of the speed of sound is to watch a baseball game from 300 meters away. You will see the batter swing the bat and make contact with the pitched ball, and then a second later, you will hear the recognizable crack of the bat against the ball. Alternatives to Hearing While some people can benefit from hearing aids, others' hearing abilities have been permanently damaged, and hearing aids do not offer much help for them. In order to communicate with others, these people use sign language and lip reading techniques. Sign language has a long history, with forms of this type of communication dating back thousands of years. This language has various forms as well, coordinating to a group of spoken languages. If you have lost your hearing, hearing aids are excellent tools of our modern time which should be enjoyed.
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