Anatomists typically divide the ear into three main sections: the outer, middle, and inner ear. The outer ear includes everything you see on the surface plus the ear canal — mostly elastic cartilage wrapped in skin that’s rich with sebaceous oil glands and ear wax glands. At this point, the purpose of the ear is just to collect sound waves, kind of like how a satellite dish is concave to collect radio waves. Those sound waves rattle the eardrum, or tympanic membrane, an extremely thin membrane that amplifies and transmits sound waves to the three smallest bones in our bodies — the hammer, anvil, and stirrup or malleus, incus, and stapes if you want to use Latin. Then those vibrations wiggle the cochlea in the inner ear, which transforms vibrations into nervous impulses that travel to the brain and get interpreted as your favorite Tiktok song.
