ShmoopTube

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And here's your shmoop du jour brought to you by the

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eardrum which sounds like a bad idea if you ask us... alright here's today's question [People in a parade playing the drums]

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another name for the eardrum is the what right here the answers...

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....All right well to make things a little easier let's pull up a labelled ear

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diagram right there of course we're not going to just show you the labels [Diagram of the inner ear]

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because well that would be too easy sorry to get your hopes up first up is A

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the cochlea..That another name for the eardrum? well no because the cochlea

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is a portion deep in the inner ear that changes sound into nerve messages

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that go to your brain well think of it as a translator making sense of [A fish swimming towards the brain via a signal]

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everything coming into your ear from music to uh not so music and where on

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our diagram is it well seeing as cochlea comes from the ancient Greek word for

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spiral or snail shell it's pretty easy to locate cute-looking yes are answered [A snail on a diagram of the inner ear]

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no.. On the topic of answers whose names describe their shape we can eliminate B

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malleus it's definitely not the eardrum but instead of small bone connected to [A small bone hitting a drum near an ear]

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the eardrum and helps transmit vibrations throughout the ear and its

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shape well, looks like a hammer like a mallet, right malleus mallet they pay us

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the big bucks for these comparisons people the oval window more or less describes [Man stood in sunglasses and money falls from the sky]

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its appearance as well it is after all a membrane covered opening leading from

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the middle of the ear to the inner ear it's necessary and allowing sound [sound travelling through the oval window]

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passage through the ear and sort of a kind of looks like an oval window but

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it's not our answer either. The stapes too is so named because of its appearance, though

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the reference may be lost on all you city folks it's a small bone that [Dog waiting outside a window sending vibrations]

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transmits vibrations to the oval window and it shaped a lot like a stirrup you

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know those things that keep a horse riders feet in place, or that legging

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trend from the 90's...Either way, stapes is not the right answer which [Horse wearing leggings]

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means the correct answer is in fact C the tympanic

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membrane another far more fancy shmancy name for the eardrum when sound waves

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hit the eardrum that causes the bones in the inner ear to move which in turn

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initiate the process of transduction or by both sound waves are converted into

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neural signals ooh la la tympanic membrane a very important and sciencey

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of you. Now if you'd excuse us we have to run away before this kid decides to pick [A kid chases a man with drum sticks]

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an ear drum solo

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