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  • KidsHealth presents "How the Body Works,"

  • with Chloe and the Nurb.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

  • (SINGING) A-skiddly bob, a-booma lotta chakka boom boom, yeah!

  • Woo.

  • Tell me where it hurts.

  • I'm singing, not hurting.

  • (SINGING) A-doo diddly dee!

  • Um, I do love the drums.

  • I am drumming in honor of today's quest-- (SINGING)

  • To the ear to see how we hear.

  • So you're playing the drum because we're

  • going to learn how the drum in your ear helps you hear.

  • That was the plan, but having managed to climb up this tree--

  • You found that the getting down part is not so easy?

  • Precisely.

  • No worries, as the ear is coming here to hear.

  • Delightful!

  • Before we enter, did you know that there

  • are three parts to the ear?

  • Three parts?

  • Sing it, Nurb.

  • (SINGING) The outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear.

  • Woo hoo hoo.

  • I'm guessing that this, being on the outside,

  • would be the outer ear?

  • What a clever Chloe you are.

  • The outer ear, also known as the pinna or auricle--

  • (SINGING) Fancy word!

  • The pinna, or outer ear, acts like a funnel,

  • collecting sounds to channel them into the ear canal, which

  • is also part of the outer ear.

  • What are we waiting for?

  • Let's head inside the outer ear.

  • Ew, what's this gunk on the floor?

  • You mean this glorious earwax produced by the ear canal?

  • Nasty earwax is more like it.

  • Hardly.

  • Earwax contains chemicals to fight off

  • infections that could hurt the skin here

  • in the ear canal and traps dirt to help keep it clean.

  • OK, fighting infection and keeping the ear canal clean

  • is important stuff.

  • Uh, yeah.

  • Also, earwax will help us slide down the ear canal!

  • Woo hoo hoo!

  • To the middle ear!

  • Where we find the eardrum!

  • [LOUD DRUMMING]

  • Quietly, my dear Chloe.

  • The eardrum is a very sensitive instrument.

  • [SOFT DRUMMING]

  • Ah, much better.

  • Like my bongo drum, the eardrum is a thin piece

  • of tightly-stretched skin.

  • Do they work the same?

  • Very much the same.

  • And also different.

  • Such a Nurb thing to say.

  • Explain.

  • A musical drum makes sound when we hit it,

  • but no one's hitting the drum in your ear.

  • The sound waves that your outer ear collected

  • cause it to vibrate.

  • Sound waves vibrate the eardrum?

  • Got it.

  • What happens next?

  • When the eardrum vibrates, it moves

  • a set of three tiny bones on the other side called ossicles.

  • Ossicles?

  • That sounds like a drum beat.

  • (CHANTING) Ossicles, ossicles, ossicles.

  • The three ossicle bones are called the hammer, the anvil,

  • and the stirrup.

  • Huh.

  • Those bones sort of look like those things.

  • But the sound's journey to the brain isn't over yet, is it?

  • Not even close.

  • For that, we need to pop past the ear drum to the inner ear.

  • There are the ossicles.

  • And there's the cochlea.

  • (SINGING) The ossicle bones connected to the cochlea.

  • The cochlea is a small, circled tube filled with liquid.

  • The vibration of the ossicles create waves

  • in the liquid in the cochlea.

  • Are those little hairs I see?

  • I'm so happy you asked.

  • The cochlea is lined with tiny hairs.

  • When the fluid in the cochlea moves, it moves the hairs

  • and creates nerve signals that get sent to the brain.

  • The brain understands these nerve signals as sound,

  • and so you hear.

  • What?

  • I said, you hear!

  • Sorry, I can't hear you.

  • That's because you have earplugs in your ears!

  • A precaution in case you started singing again.

  • Oh ho!

  • What a fine idea.

  • (SINGING) Three parts to the ear you

  • will need if you want to hear-- outer, middle, and inner ear!

  • Scoop doop doo boo.

  • Sound gets funneled in the pinna through an ear canal

  • to the middle ear, where the sound makes the eardrum

  • vibrate, moving the--

  • (CHANTING) Ossicles, ossicles, ossicles, ossicles.

  • (SINGING) Ossicles move the liquid

  • in the cochlea in the inner ear, which

  • moves the tiny hairs inside the cochlea,

  • sending nerve signals to your brain so you can hear!

  • Skiddly doop, doop doop, doop doop, I hear you.

  • [MUSIC PLAYING]

KidsHealth presents "How the Body Works,"

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