The fascinating world of hearing
Switch on Life is a free online learning platform with videos and interactive games about hearing loss and hearing technology. You can discover the basics about acoustics, frequency, and the anatomy of the hearing process in an entertaining and exciting way. We also introduce you to the fascinating world of hearing and the technology of hearing implants. The content is in plain English.
Switch on Life consists of eight different chapters with numerous interactive activities, which we will show you one by one over the next few months. All content is based on science.
The three previous chapters were all about hearing with only one ear. Now, we want to show you what high, low, and mid-range frequencies are all about.
Chapter 4
What makes a natural sound?
In search of lost frequencies
The two main characters from Switch on Life, Bob and Rose, are in the middle of a strange dream: They can neither hear themselves nor their environment. You can send them to a concert hall, a forest, and a party. In all three settings, you choose which sound frequencies Bob and Rose can hear. You pick between low, medium, and high frequencies and then hear a filtered version of the sound, with just the sounds in that frequency range. In the end, you'll find that sounds and music only sound natural when they include all frequencies!
A person with normal hearing hears low, mid-range, and high frequencies, which makes the world around us sound natural. However, as soon as certain frequencies are missing, sounds lack brilliance and life, they become boring and colorless. High-frequency sounds are e.g., birds chirping or a baby squeaking, low-frequency sounds are e.g., dogs barking or the sound of a lawn mower. When people suffer from high-frequency hearing loss, they can no longer properly understand sibilant sounds such as “S”, “Z”, “SH” and “ZH”. The world around them therefore turns duller and quieter. Older people frequently suffer from age-related high-frequency hearing loss.
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