Hearing

Hearing is one of our senses. I hear when our ears pick up sound waves in the air which make our eardrums vibrate. These vibrations are passed on the nerves inside the air, which send message to the brain. The brain then tells us what the sounds are like.

When the sounds waves vibrate slowly, I hear a low, or low-pitched, sound. When the sound vibrations are fast, I hear high-pitched sounds. Some animals, such as dogs, can hear much higher sound than i can and we sometimes use 'silent' whistles to call them. The sound these 'silent' whistles make is so high that I can't hear it, but the dogs can.

Bats can make and hear even higher sounds. They make these sounds to find they way around at night by listening for echoes from things in their path. They find their prey in the way.