Human hearing
I can describe how the human ear detects sound and explain why there are limits to human hearing.
Human hearing
I can describe how the human ear detects sound and explain why there are limits to human hearing.
These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- Human hearing involves the transmission of sound waves through different parts of the ear.
- Wave transmission to a new medium can be limited by the wave amplitude or the wave frequency.
- The range of human hearing is 20 Hz to 20 000 Hz. Frequencies above and below this are called ultrasound and infrasound.
- The highest frequency you can hear reduces with age as cells of the cochlea and auditory nerve become damaged over time.
Keywords
Transmit - Waves are transmitted when they pass across a boundary from one material (medium) into another.
Ear drum - The eardrum is a membrane within the ear that is caused to vibrate by incoming sound waves.
Cochlea - The cochlea is a spiral-shaped structure within the ear that creates electrical signals when set vibrating.
Infrasound - Sound waves of frequency below 20 Hz usually cannot be heard by humans, so are called infrasound.
Ultrasound - Sound waves of frequency above 20 000 Hz usually cannot be heard by humans, so are called ultrasound.
Common misconception
Sound waves somehow “are” the sounds you hear.
The sensation of hearing sound (what you hear) is a different thing to what a sound wave is (longitudinal oscillations of particles).
To help you plan your year 10 physics lesson on: Human hearing, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your year 10 physics lesson on: Human hearing, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
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Explore more key stage 4 physics lessons from the Measuring waves unit, dive into the full secondary physics curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.
Licence
Starter quiz
6 Questions
this is set by the amplitude of the sound wave
this is set by the frequency of the sound wave
this is set by the shape of the sound wave