A Shiver in the Air

A loudspeaker never blows air at you, yet you hear it across the room. Follow a sound through a drum thinner than paper, three tiny bones and a coiled tube of liquid into a message your brain can read, then work out why some ears go quiet. Eight investigations for ages 12 and up, inside a working model of the ear.

Course cover

Into the head

Lesson 1

A Note Across the Room image

A Note Across the Room

How can sound cross a room when the air only moves back and forth?

Lesson 2

The Pain on the Way Down image

The Pain on the Way Down

The ache comes on the way down, and one swallow makes it vanish.

Lesson 3

Shouting at a Swimming Pool image

Shouting at a Swimming Pool

Sound travelling through air passes poorly into water. How does your ear get those vibrations into the liquid deep inside it?

Inside the snail

Lesson 4

The Push With Nowhere to Go image

The Push With Nowhere to Go

How can a tiny bone push into a hard shell already full of liquid?

Lesson 5

One Tube, Every Note image

One Tube, Every Note

Two notes travel in together through every part of the ear, and still arrive as two.

Lesson 6

A Nudge the Size of an Atom image

A Nudge the Size of an Atom

Sound barely bends the tiny hairs inside your ear. How can that movement become a message your brain can use?

When it goes quiet

Lesson 7

Loud Enough, Still Not Clear image

Loud Enough, Still Not Clear

Someone can hear that you are talking, but cannot make out the words. Why might making your voice louder still leave the words unclear?

Lesson 8

Three Ears Gone Quiet image

Three Ears Gone Quiet

Someone has started to hear less. How could you tell whether sound is blocked on its way in or the ear is failing to turn it into a signal?

Review and assessment

Lesson 9

Test: A Shiver in the Air

Review the course ideas by applying them to new situations, with kind feedback after every answer.

Locked till you take the prior lesson