You don’t have to be a medical practioner before knowing how exactly you hear sounds. In this article I present to you an easy way to always remember how we hear sounds. i.e the sequence of sound travel to the brain. At least, every biology student is expected to know how the ear works in order to pass his or her exam.

Before we go on, let’s review what we are being taught about the ear at school.
We learned that the ear is divided into three compartments: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear.

The outer ear consists of Pinna and external auditory meatus (ear canal).
And there is the tympanic
membrane that borders the outer and middle ear.

The middle ear consists of ear ossicles: mealeus ( hammer ), incus (anvil), stapes (stirrup) which fits into the oval window.
The inner ear: this consists of complex of bony passageways ( bony
labyrinth) filled with a fluid called
perilymph. And going inward we found endolymph. These forms two important sensory structures: cochlea; semicircular
canals , utricule and saccule, the last three being concerned with balance.

To remember these amidst other things, you have got to associate these names to the things you have already known. And you can achieve it with your apartment.

The outer ear = your veranda or balcony.
The middle ear = your middle room. The door to your middle room represent the tympanic membrane.

Hammer, the carpenters’, anvil, some shoe coblers use it. stapes rhymes with tapes.
The inner ear= your inner room.
Now put them into action
, actually stand or see yourself standing in your veranda right now. OK, start going inside; walking through the canal.
Now, imagine the door to your middle room is made of skin (the
tympanic membrane). As you open the tympanic membrane to your middle room, you see a very gigantic hammer, anvil, and tape hanging dangerously on the inside of the door.
In your Middle Room.
Now turn to your window and imagine yourself using the hammer, anvil, and tape, hitting and shaking the window violently. OK.
Now get in your ‘inner room’, where there is a very big, fluid-filled bucket below the window, to be precise. On the side of this bucket, write the word ‘ cochlea ‘ and the fluid is
perilymph. See waves on this perilymph as a result of vibrations emanating from hitting the window of your ‘middle room’. On the top of this perilymph is a can ( upper canal ) of Malta Guinness moving up and down (to-and-fro) due to the wave in the perilymph.

How Sounds Travel from the pinna to the cochlea
Pinna collects sound waves and send it to the tympanic membrane via ear canal ( you can also think of a funnel fixed to one end of a host and the other end is directed onto a musical drum ‘tympanic membrane’). As the air hits or strike (impinge) the tympanic membrane, it vibrates.

Visualize a very big; hammer, anvil, and measuring tape (stapes) being suspended below the stretched drum (tympanic membrane). So, the vibration of the tympanic membrane causes the hammer, anvil, and stapes to move to-and-fro!

In the Middle Ear
The stapes being fixed into the oval window, pushes the oval window in and out. Try perform this in your middle room?!
As the window is vibrating the wall of your room is also vibrating.
In the Inner Ear (inner room)
Due to this vibrations, waves are seen in the perilymph.
The pressure waves in the perilymph push the membrane separating the upper canal and the COCHLEAE duct to-and -fro (think of the can of Malta Guinness). This movement set the endolymph in motion. This in turn, causes the elastic basilar membrane to vibrate. But, the relatively rigid
rectorial membrane remains fairly stationary. Thus, the hairs of the sensory cells between these two membranes bend, causing nerve impulses to be sent to the brain via the cochlea.
High-picthed (high frequency) sounds make the basilar membrane near the round window vibrate more, whereas low frequency (pitched) sound cause the basilar membrane near the tip of the cochlea tube to vibrate more. As a result, the brain determine the pitch of sound by regions of the cochlea which sends the nerve impulses.
#sometakeaways!
The organ of hearing is the cochlea, I remember this by thinking and hearing the sound of a policemen cockling (cochlea) his gun!
The organs of balance: semicircular canals, utricule, and saccule. I remember this by thinking of
sack (saccule) race. The mouth of the sack = semicircular canal; utricule is when the athlete trip and fall, utricule (you trip and fall)! Or, can you really maintain your
BALANCE in sack race?
High-picthed (high frequency) sounds make the basilar membrane near the round window vibrate more. Think of the round leather object, football being played high up pitch by the dominating team!

Go over this one more time and you are off to correctly describe the sequence of how sound travels to the brain anytime.

I believe this has helped someone. Please feel free to share, and also share with us how you have memorised the sequence of sound travel.
Thanks!

Source: https://eneyellowacademy.com/2017/03/04/the-ear-how-we-hear-sounds/