Having the ability to hear is a blessing. Having ears and being able to hear helps keep you connected to the world around you. However, many who have this ability often take it for granted, which is a shame since it can be gone just as quickly. Your ears are amazing, as this complex organ allows us to experience life fully, enjoy the sounds around us and more.
Your ears are more interesting than you think. Learn more about this vital organ and your ability to hear by checking out these fascinating hearing facts.
- You technically get a “new” ear canal yearly. This is because the skin in your ear increases around 1.3 inches a year. When this happens your old skin is removed.
- The third most common health problem in America is hearing loss.
- The human ear is able to hear sounds as low as 20 Hz, and as high as 20,000 Hz.
- Your ears do more than allow you to hear, they also help keep you balanced.
- If you lost all of the tiny hairs in your ear canal, the cilia, you would lose your ability to hear?
- The internal ear is about the size of a pencil eraser and has more than 20,000 hairs on it.
- The outer ear never stops growing during your lifetime.
- Your ears are self-cleaning, so there’s no need for cotton swabs. Even though many find ear wax to be disgusting, ear wax helps protect your sensitive ears from dust and dirt.
- Your ears never stop working, even while you sleep. However, even though your ears are able to hear your brain is not able to register what your ears are hearing.
- Being exposed to sounds louder than 120 decibels can damage your hearing in 7.5 minutes.
- The three bones in your middle ear are so small they can all fit on a penny. These are the malleus (hammer), incus (anvil), and stapes (stirrup).
- The smallest bone in the human body is the stapes (stirrup).
- Children with mild hearing loss run a risk of failing at least one grade.
- In response to sound, the eardrum moves less than a billionth of an inch.
- Those under the age of 65 make up the majority of individuals suffering from hearing loss.
- The bacteria in your ear can increase by 700 times by wearing headphones for an hour.
- The temporal bone is the hardest bone in the human body. Your inner ear is shaped by this bone, and it’s the shape of the temporal bone that helps process sounds.
- The pinna is the outside of your ear, which acts like a funnel and amplifies sound for the inner ear.
- A single incident of exposure to an extremely loud noise can permanently damage your hearing.
- Did you know that earwax has been used by anthropologists to study mankind’s early migratory patterns?