Drag it. Spin it. Trace the sound.
Rotate the full ear, zoom down to the tiny ossicles, and click any part — pinna, ear canal, eardrum, cochlea — to open its story. Then switch to the animated view to watch sound travel from the outside world to the auditory nerve.
SOUND TRAVELS · OUTER → MIDDLE → INNER → BRAIN
MALLEUS (HAMMER) — ATTACHED TO EARDRUM · TRANSMITS TO INCUS
Three regions, one job: turn air into nerve.
The ear is built from three functional regions — the outer ear catches sound, the middle ear amplifies it, and the inner ear converts it to electrical signals the brain can read. Tap a row to open that part in the model.
Four moves and you've traced the sound.
Everything runs locally in your browser — nothing to install, nothing uploaded, nothing stored.
Pick your view
Start in the full ear for the big picture, then flip to the ossicles view to take the three tiny bones apart.
Spin, drag & zoom
The ear turns on its own — grab it to steer, tilt by dragging up and down, and zoom until the individual ossicles come into view.
Click any part
Every structure opens a dossier: its role, a quick fact, and buttons to jump straight to related parts.
Trace the sound
Turn on the SOUND animation to watch a wave travel from the pinna, through the ear canal, eardrum, ossicles and into the cochlea — then hide the labels and quiz yourself.
The ear, measured.
The human ear is a masterpiece of miniaturization — these are the numbers it keeps to.
The ear spec sheet
Your ear detects frequencies from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. The three ossicles amplify eardrum vibrations about 20 times — a mechanical advantage that lets you hear whispers.
Your ear in numbers
The cochlea is a coiled tube just 35 mm long containing around 15,000 hair cells. The ear canal is about 2.5 cm deep and naturally resonates at 2–4 kHz, exactly the range of human speech.
The ossicle lever
The malleus and incus form a lever that multiplies force by about 1.3×. Combined with the eardrum-to-stapes area ratio, the middle ear amplifies pressure by roughly 20× before the signal reaches the fluid-filled cochlea.
Things people ask.
Everything about how the model behaves, how honest the drawing is, and what it saves (nothing).
Still stuck? Write to us — we read everything.
How do I use the interactive human ear model?+
Drag anywhere on the model to rotate the ear, scroll or pinch to zoom, and drag up or down to tilt it. Tap any part — the pinna, ear canal, eardrum, ossicles, cochlea — to open its dossier. You can also switch to the animated sound path or the exploded ossicle view.
Is this ear model to scale or scientifically exact?+
No. It's a stylized, idealized take on the human ear — built so every part is easy to see, click and tell apart. Real anatomy is far more intricate, and the structures are packed tightly into a space smaller than a coin.
What are the three main regions of the ear?+
The outer ear (pinna and ear canal), the middle ear (eardrum and the three ossicles: malleus, incus, stapes), and the inner ear (cochlea and semicircular canals). Each region plays a specific role in capturing, amplifying and translating sound.
What do the ossicles do?+
The three tiny bones — malleus (hammer), incus (anvil) and stapes (stirrup) — form a mechanical lever system that amplifies vibrations from the eardrum by about 20 times before passing them to the fluid-filled cochlea.
How does the cochlea turn sound into nerve signals?+
The cochlea is a fluid-filled, snail-shaped chamber lined with thousands of hair cells. Different frequencies cause different regions of the basilar membrane to vibrate, bending the hair cells and triggering electrical impulses that travel along the auditory nerve to the brain.
What is the difference between the helix view and the animated view?+
The helix view lets you freely rotate and inspect every part of the ear. The animated view traces the path of a sound wave from the pinna, through the ear canal and ossicles, into the cochlea, and finally to the auditory nerve.
What does the spin toggle do?+
It keeps the ear slowly turning on its own so it reads as a living 3D object rather than a flat picture. Grab it at any time to steer it yourself — the spin politely waits while you're inspecting.
Does the tool save or upload anything?+
No. The model runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you click, rotate, or select is ever sent to a server, logged, or stored.
Can I use this on my phone or tablet?+
Yes. One finger rotates and tilts, pinching zooms, and tapping selects — so the whole model works the same with touch as it does with a mouse.
Is this interactive human ear model free to use?+
Yes, it's completely free with no account, no sign-up, and no limit on how much you explore.