Ears-the pinna or auricle

The Ear is called the pinna or auricle. This is the part of the ear that people can see. It's what people pierce to wear earrings and what your friend whispers into when it's time for a secret. The main job of the outer ear is to collect sounds, whether they're your friend's whispers or a barking dog.

The outer ear also includes the ear canal, where wax is produced. Earwax is that gunky stuff that protects the canal. Earwax contains chemicals that fight off infections that could hurt the skin inside the ear canal. It also collects dirt to help keep the ear canal clean. So earwax isn't just gross. It's gross and useful.

After sound waves enter the outer ear, they travel through the ear canal and make their way to the middle ear. The middle ear's main job is to take those sound waves and turn them into vibrations that are delivered to the inner ear. To do this, it needs the eardrum, which is a thin piece of skin stretched tight like a drum.

They include:

* the malleus (say: mah-lee-us), which is attached to the eardrum and means "hammer" in Latin
* the incus (say: in-kus), which is attached to the malleus and means "anvil" in Latin
* the stapes (say: stay-peez), the smallest bone in the body, which is attached to the incus and means "stirrup" in Latin

When sound waves reach the eardrum, they cause the eardrum to vibrate. When the eardrum vibrates, it moves the tiny ossicles — from the hammer to the anvil and then to the stirrup. These bones help sound move along on its journey into the inner ear.