There's a Lever in Your Ear and It Does Something Amazing

[@SteveMould]

"Mediums" is a valid plural of "medium". Change my mind. The sponsor is NordVPN. Get 70% off a 3-year plan with a bonus 1-month plan tacked on the end. If you're lucky you might get an extra year even. 30 day money back guarantee. Go to nordvpn.com/steve and use the promo code steve at checkout.

[@ahuddleofpenguins4842]

My friends and I went to the cinema and we decided we didn’t mind sharing popcorn. Everyone getting their own small popcorns would be much more expensive, so we ended up sharing two mediums.

[@EchoHeo]

descriptivism rules!!!

[@manipulativer]

Aether is a gasseous like medium and there is no plural of it :p No really, could you please debunk Nikola Tesla? Even in this video there are corelations with sound and electricity and he clearly stated that EM waves are NOT transversal but longitudinal propagation through aether akin to sound in air. He first explained that its a rarefied gas but after michelson morely experiment came to the conclusion that its a fundamental gasseous like medium prevading everything. He even explained it's propreties and how and why it propagates at speed of light. He also said that relativity is destined to oblivion as it's all wrong. Please. There is no informations to be found anywhere only wrong teachings not taking into acount the longitudinal aspect.

[@andrewedis9907]

You should've given tips on how to insulate against noisy neighbours 😊

[@HKCREATESUNIQUE]

Great video. Now I understood

[@haydenhoes]

All the years of my life and I finally learn why I can make my ears rumble on command.

[@WKfpv]

That's exactly what I'm thinking right now.

[@dreamingthelife]

me too, when I was a kid I assumed they were my 'ear drums'

[@dreamingthelife]

have you guys put your ear up to someone else's and made the sound? my friends can hear when I do it, I thought it'd be cool to know Morse code and communicate with someone else 2ho can make the sound too =)

[@lylewasacow]

Yes! I always used the clicking to help relieve sinus pressure in airplanes and wondered why no one knew what I was talking about

[@snolahc]

@@dreamingthelife i never thought of playing with it with someone else, You're my hero !

[@DeviilReaper]

I can hear the crunching sounds without needing to do that face, so I can contract my Tensor Tympani Muscle, I always wondered what that was, thanks.

[@robbie745]

Same here!

[@Shangori]

Yup, can do it as well. Taught myself after realizing the rumbling after yawning. Thought it was normal till a few months ago.

[@XenicTheDurr]

I can do it also, i've heard us referred to as "Ear rumblers"

[@GadAnimations]

I've wondered as well, didn't realize it was meant to be a reflex. Hard to hold it for long periods of time though. I hope "crunching" isn't an entirely accurate depiction of what you hear though, that doesn't sound all that great

[@arfyness]

Sometimes my left one thumps on its own for a few seconds, but it sounds and feels very different from the yawn rumble. Actually not entirely sure it's this exact muscle twitching, but it is a twitch, which is quite different from a more constant contraction.

[@richardcampbell4506]

While everyone seems focused on the Tensor Tympani Muscle I’m blown away by the clarity of this video. I’ve always known the little bones helped transmit sounds but never understood their role and yet again how amazing evolution is! Thanks again for another fantastic video, I really appreciate how you not only identify the components of your subject but also identify the mechanism associated with that component. Whether it be ears or gravity waves. Wonderful 👌

[@shama_k2604]

Yeah the way he explains the minute details with such a clarity is amazing !! But if he had explained the lever mechanism in the ear a bit more with animations that would've been awesome..... I couldn't get how those weird shapes caused lever action 🤔

[@nataliafrese1526]

He is the best explainer ever!

[@shama_k2604]

@@nataliafrese1526 yeah totally agreed 👍

[@philipmierisch6518]

Yeah amazing how our ears, our eyes and our incredible brains evolved from a muddy soup somewhere in outer space! That takes more faith to believe in than the fact that we were created by a super intelligent being. I let you figure out WHO that being is!

[@Dappersworth]

>evolution

[@Skip6235]

It's going to be weird watching older youtube videos in a few years from around now and everyone just casually mentioning they're in quarantine.

[@monad_tcp]

@@pskugd8385 the universe was not found by chance, science never said that. you don't know what chance means in science. chance is about choice, you have a probability of that thing happening, science actually says everything in possibility (of the universal constants that govern the laws of the universe) is possible, but just improbable, but clearly not everything is possibly happening at once, even if it is (yeah, I subscribe to multiverse interpretation, not the copenhagen) we don't experience it this way, so something is choosing to see our current reality. Perhaps there's a God that makes the wave-function collapse, perhaps it is my own consciousness that make it happen, perhaps both. I too was an atheist and it was the religion that made me atheist, but it was my mathematics study that make me go back believing in something. I don't know if god created the universe or not, and I can't know if god doesn't exist or not, but clearly the universe is way bigger than we can grasp and there must be something higher. Even if god created the universe, as a scientist we have to exclude it from the equations because we're part of the universe and we can't see it from the outside, we can only see through what we change in the universe, by an action and through an reaction. Remember science is just a tool for creating knowledge, you can't create knowledge of something you didn't interact, and you can't interact with god directly (the same way an ant can't interact with us, and we are gods to them, they can't fathom our intelligence). But I have a suspect that the universe is way bigger and the god is just the observer, that's why we experience this specific universe. (that creates infinite induction of gods, I have no problem with infinite induction, infinities are only a problem inside universes, not outside them, mathematics again, yes, I'm a platonist mathematician too, mathematical constructs are not imaginary things, they really exist)

[@pskugd8385]

Luiz Felipe Mr. Felipe, thank you for making your point. But in the end, you found a god. he exists. You say you should exclude him from the equation. So what is the use of searching ?! . This is one point. The other point. Thank you for explaining to me the meaning of chance. But with the various atheists, I noticed that they reach a point or result and then say an explosion, waves, etc. But does it make sense to make itself by itself and then make this wonderful, spacious universe!?. Again, come back and say, if I told you that there was a house built without someone interfering, you would accuse me in my mind. It is a trivial thing that could be if we recognized the waves, the explosion, etc. Who created this universe, in the last . Life is short and every day who goes away forever. We are here to perform a certain task of worshiping God. Not to solve mathematical equations and spin in a vortex. We take from the material sciences what is based on the evidence that we benefit from in our lives and take it as a bridge to cross the hereafter. no problem . God addresses His servants who created them and deny His grace, and he says in his holy book: (Or were they created by nothing, or were they the creators [of themselves]?)and(Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Rather, they are not certain.)Surat al-Tur Verse 35; 36 The Noble Qur’an. And (And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship Me.)and(I do not want from them any provision, nor do I want them to feed Me.)Surat al-Dhariyat verse 56;57 the Noble Qur’an.

[@monad_tcp]

@@pskugd8385 Hello there, "So what is the use of searching ?" its just a science thing of dealing with what you know and accepting the unknown, God doesn't go in the equation because he's a constant external variable that you can't change or control to do experimentation. Remember that science is about experimentation, not just observation. But I also think of not spoiling the ending of the play :) (soul searching is about the subjective internal and not the objective external, all of this can as well be illusion)

[@monad_tcp]

"But does it make sense to make itself by itself and then make this wonderful, spacious universe!?" Well, I approach it either way, why doesn't everything exist at once? if nothing exists, then there's no rule saying that anything can't exist, so anything exists. Its a paradoxal logic. There are ways in the mathematics to deal with this, and they are precisely creating discrete closed universes and leaving the unknown in the open, that solves the paradox. So, by induction you assume everything exist because they can, because only the non-existance non-exists, everything else does. Then that creates the multi-verse out of nothing. (1 from 0, something from nothing, we do that on Construtivist mathematics) But that is an act of creation. We can only do that if we have this bounded context (its kind what Zermelo did) in wish we filter some of the existence in this finite group. Then we arrive at this question: how and what does decide that this precise thing exist and the others not? something. This is the God we are looking for, its not concrete evidence, but its some drafts, its deeply embedded, its an axiom of existence. (this can all be an illusion of this computing device called brain, we can't know for sure, you can't be atheist, nor deist with certainty, I just think consciousness is real, the Unverse is fake, that's how its created, at least that's what I think, have to watch it all until the end of the play to know (iow, after I die) ) All of this is just my way of seeing thing.

[@monad_tcp]

"We are here to perform a certain task of worshiping God." that's when we disagree, I don't think God needs worshiping, and I still don't have religion. I just believe its possible that there's a God. If there is indeed a God, we can't know reasons of the Universal consciousness, that's for sure. If all the universe exist through His eyes, then everything is kind of worshiping just by being, my friend, but here we enter on individual beliefs. I think the last paragraph you said about Qur’an don't disagree with what I'm saying, but I don't know Teology, just Mathematics and Science.

[@SjtPatrik]

Well I just learned something about myself! I've always been able to "close off" my ears from loud sound using a muscle in/around my jaw at will, but I never knew it was using the tensor tympani muscle. It's one of those things that's hard to describe, but when I do it, everything sounds muffled like I'm underwater and occasionally I will hear that roaring sound you get when yawning. As soon as I looked up the tensor tympani, accounts of people doing this told me it was exactly the thing I've been doing.

[@Cronuz2]

Have always been able to do it myself. I can hear my breathing and heartbeat really loud though

[@nocare]

@@Cronuz2 thats because your brain rapidly adjust the sensitivity to sound. Its like you have covered your microphone with a sock and turned the gain really high. Now its much harder to hear people talking into the the mic but guy who keeps flicking the stand is much clearer. I wish I could do it at will but I have the opposite problem. Only extremely strong yawns ever reduce or muffle sound.

[@KriLL325783]

I can make a rumbling noise in my ears at will, I assume it's this muscle? Not sure it really lowers the volume of external noise though.

[@schuppe9006]

Interesting, I am able to let my ears “crack” at will, but i still can hear nearly everything like normal... but I also hear my heartbeat and my breath like I am yawning 😕 In the ear there is an Eustachian tube, where some people can open at will (and let the ears crack, for example if you are flying in an airplane and feel a pressure in the ears). Maybe I can open this, but not use this special muscle? Do anyone have more information?

[@casualbeluga2724]

@@schuppe9006 I kind of tense up my upper jaw but I focus on the inside of my ear to "pop" my ears and on planes and when swimming sometimes.

[@diegomr]

8:08 absolutely everyone: "(>.

[@Racingboom]

“Steve is going insane because of quarantine” Nope I’m pretty sure that’s just Steve.

[@rubenhdt]

@@pskugd8385 what are you doing here?? I have nothing against religion, but I do think it's total bullshit that humans made up for thing in nature they couldn't explain because they weren't educated enough. It's like a child making stories. @psk ugd what are you doing here?? I have nothing against religion, but I do think it's total bullshit that humans made up for thing in nature they couldn't explain because they weren't educated enough. It's like a child making stories.

[@pskugd8385]

ruben van den houdt My dear brother, then you have not answered what was written above. Fudge When I tell you I found a house built without anyone interfering and believing me. So let us free our minds a little and re-meditate! (Or were they created by nothing, or were they the creators [of themselves]?) (Or did they create the heavens and the earth? Rather, they are not certain.) Surat al-Tur Verse 35; 36. The Holy Quran addresses your mind.

[@_shadow_1]

@@pskugd8385 I am fine with the idea of a God. If believing in something higher makes you a better person, but not everyone can have their life improved this way. If a creator exists, it will come to them directly to give them enlightenment if enlightenment was what it thought was best for them and this creator would have many outlets to do this which are more effective than to get someone else to do it for them. To put things more simply, it WILL find a way to them if it wants to and it will use the most efficient way to do so and it will know that using one human to convince another is not the best way because humans tend to not trust one another. The reason why I know a sufficiently powerful enough entity to create this universe would know this is because I somehow figured this out and I am not powerful enough to create the universe. You don't need to go out and tell others because it will, and it will do a much better job at convincing them than a human ever could. I ask that you would criticize this message with all honesty within yourself as I have done the same with yours and have a good day because no good person likes bad days.

[@pskugd8385]

Eclipse49 If you believe in God, you must give in to his way of communicating his message to people. He is the one who created and he is the one who chooses the method. I did not bring words from me and did not invite you to a religion that I invented in order to trust me. Rather, I invite you to read the book of God, the Noble Qur’an, reading, honest, fair, without arrogance. You will know that it is the truth, either you believe in God and what it invites you to, or you arrogate from the truth. The relationship with God is based on surrender, and if you surrender to him, guide your heart and guide you for the different purposes of his orders, intentions, and will. www.quranful.com/

[@pskugd8385]

Eclipse49 46 And we used to deny the Day of Judgment. ٤٧ حَتَّىٰ أَتَانَا الْيَقِينُ47 Until the Inevitable came upon us.” ٤٨ فَمَا تَنْفَعُهُمْ شَفَاعَةُ الشَّافِعِينَ48 But the intercession of intercessors will not help them. ٤٩ فَمَا لَهُمْ عَنِ التَّذْكِرَةِ مُعْرِضِينَ49 Why are they turning away from the Reminder? ٥٠ كَأَنَّهُمْ حُمُرٌ مُسْتَنْفِرَةٌ50 As though they were panicked donkeys. ٥١ فَرَّتْ مِنْ قَسْوَرَةٍ51 Fleeing from a lion? ٥٢ بَلْ يُرِيدُ كُلُّ امْرِئٍ مِنْهُمْ أَنْ يُؤْتَىٰ صُحُفًا مُنَشَّرَةً52 Yet every one of them desires to be given scrolls unrolled. ٥٣ كَلَّا ۖ بَلْ لَا يَخَافُونَ الْآخِرَةَ53 No indeed! But they do not fear the Hereafter. ٥٤ كَلَّا إِنَّهُ تَذْكِرَةٌ54 Nevertheless, it is a reminder. ٥٥ فَمَنْ شَاءَ ذَكَرَهُ55 So whoever wills, shall remember it.

[@NotQuiteFirst]

This guy has literally the best coloured eyes.

[@SomeBeautyfulArt]

For me brown eyes for boys and green eyes for girls are best

[@myleslos9658]

We are talking about ears today guys 😠

[@AbeDillon]

It helps that his pupils left the building at 3:46. Now that his Iris has conquered the pupils, they're planning to expand into sclera territory.

[@Davidcook55951]

Yeah, blue eyes are truly the best kind of eyes to have.

[@rade-blunner7824]

Jane Elliott didn't get through to some people, I see.

[@Amuzic_Earth]

DAmn!!! I finally got answer to something that i had discovered when I was a child. That rumble you are talking about ...I don't have to flex my entire face to do that. I have aquired finer control over the exact muscle..Initially I had to bat my eyelids to do that, but now I can do it without batting my eyelids. And that sound, I had been using for so long to keep counts while playing musics...that only I can hear and nobody does. So far, I used to think it was all in my brain, but now that you have said it, I can totally feel the exact muscle that i have been flexing all along. To be more precise, I can keep it rumbling for continuous sounds and I can make discrete sounds.

[@arfyness]

Wow that's pretty cool - I'm kinda jealous. I only have rough control of it. That takes a bit of concentration, and usually winds up initiating a yawn. You can really use it to keep a rhythm? Like without really thinking about it?

[@juice1111]

Amuzic Earth that exactly the same with me, I had suspected it for a while, but this confirmed it.

[@petehiggins33]

I can normally only produce a fairly drawn out sound but if I want a short burst of sound then I can do it by blinking my eyes at the same time.

[@DanSutherland]

Can other people do it in ears individually as well? I always thought this was something everyone does just never talks about.

[@rickc2102]

I just tense my jaw a li'l bit and *rumble*.

[@spacemanspiff2137]

I’ve always been able to voluntarily cause a low rumble in my ears without yawning or scrunching up my face. I guess I must have some level of voluntary control over my Tensor Tympani muscles

[@mbntr2363]

Spaceman Spiff same for me and I always wondered what it was

[@coreyskuse9387]

Huh. That’s what that is. It makes me feel weird if I do it too much so I tend to not do it.

[@florianellerbrock8922]

Spaceman Spiff me too

[@thobiex]

I have this too. A part of the population has voluntary control of the tensor tympani muscle. You can actually hear the same sound by clenching your fist and holding it firmly against your ear. Muscles are surprisingly noisy

[@wesleyrekker2400]

Me too man! I always thought i was the only one who knows about it. As a kid i pretended that thats how i would activate my superpowers so i dont use them by accident. This was the first time ive heard anyone talk about it. Unfortunatily now you lot that can also control it might have superpowers too and that could be a problem for my world domination plans

[@timmyd24601]

As an audio professional, you can not imagine my appreciation when you opened by saying 'damping' instead of 'dampening'.... you've made at least one person extremely happy today...

[@tech-kyle]

As someone in computer networking, I appreciate the honest and accurate description of what VPNs do and when they're helpful.

[@evandavis5223]

Steve Mould: Do you need a VPN? Tom Scott: You probably don't and here's why...

[@deldia]

That's because you didn't ok know what it is

[@theajayyy]

Steve described it just like Tom and even admitted that you don't need it for SSL webpages. Only domains and IPs are leaked.

[@reinei1]

@@theajayyy actually on that regard of "only for non-ssl sites": What use does a VPN have when the final link (between VPN endpoint and site) is again unencrypted? Sure most people won't directly see which site you visit, but anyone between the VPN and the server could still yank your plain text password out of the requests, or am I assuming the wrong things here?

[@theajayyy]

@@reinei1 yes, but they don't know which IP this information is from. As well, there should be no man in the middle attack on the VPN side, whereas has a higher chance of being compromised (for tech illiterate people)

[@S3thc0n]

wow finally a VPN sponsorship that doesn't tell you it "protects you from hackers" with "military grade encryption". that was a really good summary of the actual advantages of using a VPN.

[@coolguy284_2]

Yeah it shows that he actually knows what he is talking about and isn't just saying boilerplate phrases that sponsors told him to say.

[@ddragonwhistler]

Someone has seen Tom Scott's video XD

[@AbiGail-ok7fc]

It's a matter of who you trust more, your ISP, or your VPN service. A VPN might hide your traffic from your ISP, but whatever they're hiding from your ISP, they will see themselves.

[@leocurious9919]

Nord VPN? After what they have done? Holy shit.

[@imveryangryitsnotbutter]

@@leocurious9919 What did they do?

[@russellbailey8250]

Amazing, I've always been able to 'actuate' the malleus muscle alone to make that rumbling sound since I was a kid, never knew what it was or if anyone else could hear it... It's a bit like flaring your nostrils or wiggling your ears, not common voluntary movements but still possible to learn and train. Thanks Steve for this. Also your impedence matching explanation is fantastic! Same situation can be applied in electronic circuits using a transformer to match the impedence (changing voltage levels like moving the fulcrum of a level). Cheers from Australia

[@massimookissed1023]

Imagine going to the gym, and doing 100 reps of anticipating a loud noise. _"Do you even tympani, bro?"_

[@pskugd8385]

🟦🟪🟩O people. If I told you that a building has been built by itself, trees have been planted around it, beautiful furniture has been furnished, and electricity and water have been provided to it by accident without anyone interfering. You would have accused me in my mind. What do you think of someone who claims that this universe was found by chance and that he takes care of himself? This is the eye of madness. Rather, he is a great, creative, Almighty God who created this universe and as he began it will end it and we will be gathered to him on the Day of Resurrection and be held accountable for all our deeds so believe in God and His messengers. If you want more information about your life why you are here what you will face in the future who is god www.islamreligion.com/ Keep Ask questions in chat and Free your mind A message from an ex atheist I am Muslim now thank god

[@ww6372]

@@pskugd8385 good on you for finding your happiness. Dont spread your "truth" in unrelated places, this isn't the 1500s we arent interested.

[@Foreign501st]

@@pskugd8385 I'm a current atheist and will be forever. "God" doesn't exist. However if heaven and hell does, I'd rather go to hell.

[@JNCressey]

@@pskugd8385, Haha, it's almost like you don't even understand it. Only a liar or an idiot could say something that dumb - and i'd prefer to think you're not an idiot.

[@wernerboden239]

@@pskugd8385 Seems like your story turned a deaf ear. I think, creation and evolution are not mutually exclusive. If you find a pocket watch on the beach you know it's been engineered. The shells you find around it are, 'obviously' a product of evolution. But, when you look at all this, you might wonder: Is evolution engineered ? Any answer to that question is merely an opninion.

[@discreet_boson]

I HAVE HEARD A RUMBLE SO MANY TIMES IN MY EARS AND I'VE ALWAYS WONDERED WHAT IT WAS!!!

[@marc_frank]

me too 😂 but only when i made it

[@kang_min_nal_ra]

I always perceived it as coming from the eye muscles.

[@marc_frank]

@@kang_min_nal_ra if you close your eyes and look up hard you can hear it, too

[@Blowingmind]

Do you have control over it?

[@kang_min_nal_ra]

@@marc_frank yeah, but I only ever hear it in my right ear for some reason :-)

[@Tismitch]

Wow the tympannic muscle explains a mystery I've had since childhood. I've been able to flex the muscles in my ears to hear the rumbling as long as I can remember yet when I tried to explain to others no one believed me. I've been using the ability to lessen pain from loud noises like being too close to the speakers at music festivals. I've had so much skepticism from people when I try to explain it. Thank you for finally providing me with an answer to a question I had forgotten I wanted to ask!

[@qwertyTRiG]

Get some God damn kzbin.info/www/bejne/nautloOLptqeZ9E

[@shindousan]

7:50 The tensor tympani is basically a mechanical dynamic range compressor (DRC), as is the iris. Digital DRCs help avoiding loud sounds when switching between audio content mixed differently (eg. switching between videos or from classical music to electronic music and back). Properly mixed audio employs some amount of DRC through gaining and light compression. Cameras do DRC on capture by dynamically adjusting exposure according to different lighting conditions.

[@glaxmattbas]

The reflection from the light into your eyes kind of makes it look like you don't have pupils near the end of the video.

[@mrkitty777]

Beginning of video it's bigger.

[@arfyness]

That is because Steve must obviously be a devil. You see, all this demon science flies in the face of the good and true, the correct thoughtless blind faith in stories of the unseen. /s

[@jamiehosmer1481]

Dunno, but he definitely doesn't have the dark ring around the iris. My dad has that, and it's pretty neat.

[@MrArtVein]

Jamie Hosmer contacts maybe

[@ProfessorEGadd]

@@jamiehosmer1481 For those wondering, the dark ring around the iris is called the corneal limbus.

[@AkiraYoy]

YES. Thank you ! Since I'm little I can create a rumble in my hears without squishing my face like you did. I always wondered what it was and for the life of me I couldn't figure it out for sure when I was a teenager. And then I simply forgot to make sens of it until you gave me the answer ! I checked and some individuals can voluntarily contract the tensor tympani muscle which produce a rumbling sound. Yay for bonus knowledge :D Big up for all your work. You are by far one of the most interesting content creator I've come across on internet. You make us want to understand everything. You deserve much more recognition but I'm scared we would get even fewer videos haha.

[@clayz1]

0:29 Well are they going to sing, or eat pizza? You can’t do both.

[@bradarmstrong3952]

Thanks for not dumbing this material down. The details and deep concepts presented make this even more interesting!

[@shawon265]

Oh, I can contract just that muscle without scrunching up my face and hear less sound. Now I know how I do it.

[@EwanKlinkhamerX3Emerald]

hey, me too

[@Squidward1314]

Me too 🙃 I thought about describing how I do it but I can’t really... I close my eyes and then I somehow tense up the middle of my head :D

[@Tismitch]

I've been doing it for years and no one believed me. I've been using the ability to lessen pain from loud noises like being too close to the speakers at music festivals. I've had so much skepticism from people when I try to explain it.

[@shawon265]

Cool, I guess from now on we shall be called the *Tensor Tympani Muscle Dudes*

[@spacemanspiff2137]

Me too. I’ve described it to many other people, but they always have no idea what I’m talking about

[@VisionT100]

I used to think that "rumbling" was just in my head. I can make it happen just by closing my eyes and I always envisioned a fan in my head because it kind of sounds like wind blowing past my ears, especially when you try to keep it going for as long as possible it fades into this rhythmic rumble, where it fades in and out, which kind of sounds like a large fan's blade spinning slowly. To finally have an answer to a phenomena I've been experiencing since I was a little kid makes me relieved, and even kind of happy. What a wonderful video as always Steve.

[@jurian0101]

I love the fact that in a multilayer impedence matching material, the impedence of each layer forms a exponential curve. In other words they are log-linear.

[@simonnordberg162]

I'm a sound tech by trade, I thought I knew how the whole "how we hear" thing work at this point. Turns out I don't! Thanks for enlightening me!

[@nitramluap]

7:35 Similar force transmitted from a large surface area, to a smaller one -> higher pressure. And sound is pressure waves.

[@emulateiam]

ok wait at ~ 4:20 you're saying in addition to seeing upside down I also HEAR UPSIDE DOWN?

[@rinrin4711]

Your ear unlike your eye cannot tell the direction of the course of sound, so hearing upside down is not even a thing.

[@clarencegreen3071]

@@rinrin4711 Check out Steve's video of about a month ago (March 2020) entitled "5 Interesting things, episode 3.) Thumbnail has a pic of an owl with one ear up and one ear down. It's not exactly "hearing upside down" but it's a curious thing.

[@leocurious9919]

@@rinrin4711 Ears can(!) hear that. But since both are 180° phase shifted there is no difference. They can hear much more subtle differences than 180° "flip".

[@rinrin4711]

@@leocurious9919 I said ear, not ears. Using both ears your brain can tell the direction pretty accurate, but one can't.

[@clockworkkirlia7475]

Not only is this fascinating and in the exact areas of biology and physics that I love so much, it was explained in an absolutely impeccable and very practical way. Your way with physical metaphor is absolutely brilliant. Also, I have *always wondered what that rumble was!* I assumed it was just me being sensory overloaded at night and hearing my pulse more. It definitely also does activate at odd moments from time to time, as well as being able to be "switched on", and I'm relieved that it's not me pressing in on a blood vessel or something. Thanks!

[@MrRudale]

9:08 - 9:16 Say that 10 times quickly

[@r0cketplumber]

Tonic Tensor Tympani Trouble Tango!

[@sanjitraman]

@Steve Mould 9:09 I’m very impressed if you did that first take!

[@it_was_my_cat]

I've always wondered what caused my ears to "rumble" when yawning! I thought I was the the only one.

[@inventgineer]

As soon as you mentioned that something like 0.1% of sound actually gets successfully captured in earlier stages of our ear due to impedance differences in the mediums of air and the ear fluid.........and then showed the setup of a wave function device that had a level in the middle...........I immediately just went "OOOOOOOOH, leveraging (lol) mechanical advantage to enhance the magnitude and accuracy of the audio our ears pick up?? Woooooow, NEAT!" lol. Put that business together nice and quick once you gave me the tools to do so, haha. Although I admittedly was too quick to assume "that was it, I figured it out" and you caught me off-guard in revealing there was a second such lever mechanism that helped amplify incoming sound. Super fun and informative video, as always. Keep up the excellent work, my friend. What you contribute to society through such videos does not go unappreciated (b'-')b.

[@codenamelambda]

Regarding VPNs: It's important to note that while it makes sense not to trust your ISP, if you use a VPN provider, you're really just shifting that trust to them. Also, DNS (

[@raingram]

Firefox has now switched to using DNS over HTTPS by default.

[@theajayyy]

DNS over TLS is great and all, but the ISP can still see the IP you are connecting to and can do a reverse DNS lookup. They need to know this to route you. Something like tor is more trustless, though it only works for tcp.

[@codenamelambda]

@@theajayyy that is correct. You do at least get more privacy with servers that are behind the same IP and switch via the `Host` field in the HTTP header though.

[@KaitouKaiju]

I definitely trust a VPN more than any ISP I've already seen firsthand how each treats traffic

[@iamdave84]

@@KaitouKaiju I trust an ISP governed by my countries laws more than an VPN "based" whenever benefits them the most

[@AerialFrameworks]

Steve I just want you to know how much I appreciate the subtle humor you put in every video. BMW blinker joke made me laugh out loud, and the family singing was hilarious. Keep that up...

[@Rossilaz58]

I can move my Tensor Timpani whenever i want, without scrunching my face up. being able to control your Tensor Timpani is a fairly rare trait, as far as I know.

[@PaulMab9]

I've always used it to down out things if they bother me.

[@mememanfresh]

same

[@kilrahvp]

Same here

[@dbayboyds409]

The build time on that model must have been epic. Thank you. It’s so helpful to see it so clearly.

[@RJHarvey272]

The tensor tympani is my favorite muscle!

[@BitterTast3]

Any video that gives insight to wave mechanics earns a thumbs up from me.

[@portalsrule1239]

7:50 sometime when I was a lot younger, I somehow learned to flex this muscle at will with no affect to my expression. When I tried to explain what I was doing or what I was hearing, I always said it sounded like the force grip used in Star Wars kzbin.info/www/bejne/sISuopx3i7epqZI but a lot louder. I thought I was crazy! Thanks for a proper explanation as to what causes the sound!

[@cryonim]

remove the ' ) ' at the end of the link.

[@LukeMXack]

God damn the eardrum is way more amazing than I thought, really good explanation of how it works

[@SangheiliSpecOp]

So many people here finally have a name for their ear experiences 😂

[@danthemancasey]

4:25 You seem to be overlooking the obvious reason the lever reflects the wave; its partially the mass of the lever and friction yes, but more significant is the fact that the dowels attached to lever move simultaneously being mechanically linked (obviously) and so act as one dowel that is triple the mass. This is the primary cause of the reflection at the lever, if the two dowels and lever total weighed the same as one dowel there would be little to no reflection.

[@freakyjason477]

TIL: My ears have a built-in amplifier.

[@bryanreed742]

Impedance matcher. Not quite the same thing. An amplifier requires power because it increases the energy of the signal. An impedance matcher just allows the same power to pass into a different medium.

[@tom_something]

I just learned about the tensor timpani two days ago from another KZbin video. Ever sense your video on ultrasound gel, I've been more aware of the challenge and importance of impedance matching in various phenomena. I think impedance matching is important not just to let sound energy from the air into our ear, but also for letting sound energy from our heads into the air. When you cover your ears with something firm, like the palm of your hand, you can hear yourself breathe and talk much more loudly than normal. This is called autophony, or hearing oneself. While we normally see the outer ear functioning like one of those microphone cones that crooners used to sing into, I think it also functions like the flared bell of a trumpet, getting the vibrational energy from the body of the thing out into the air and, in effect, reducing internal reflections. When the ear is blocked, these vibrations don't "leak out" into their air at the same rate, and more of that energy is retained in our heads and is ultimately perceived as a loud sound.

[@lonewolf4death]

I can actually manual use the muscle in my ear I can force myself to hear the rumbling lol.

[@batalhafisica]

6:12 it's incredible! I love your videos and the way you introduce the subject. It's a beautiful representation of Nature!

[@nils42]

8:15 I can do this on command. I never knew if this is a normal thing humans could do 🤔

[@ImageJPEG]

Oddly enough, this video helped me in terms of visualizing why I sometimes need a matching network in amateur radio.

[@kioanakos]

I can control my tensor tympani muscle and make it contract whenever I want, but until today I didn't know the name of that muscle 😊

[@AlexandreMachado0]

I'd like to see a complementary video explaining what kind of effect we have on that system when we get hearing loss from excessive exposure to loud sounds.

[@juice1111]

I actually have full manual control of those muscles.

[@connorlangan04]

Ikr, it so easy, no face scrunching, no nothing

[@jacoboopy9150]

i always wondered what that rumble was! awesome video ^~^ i'm practically in love with mechanical movement

[@no-barknoonan8798]

That's one of the weird muscles I've learned how to flex actually.

[@firefalldown08]

You just helped me solve something that's always bugged me. Whenever I feel like something is going to hit my head close to my ear, I always felt that rumble in that ear. Now I know it has a name. Thanks!

[@user-cf2pl9uy5k]

Whoever made the ears is the most intelligent being there can be.

[@tedz2usa]

Beautiful video, it really clearly describes such a technical and multi-disciplinary concept. You are one of my favorite KZbinrs.

[@iandolfi5813]

So I can tense my tensor tympany on command without tensing any other muscles

[@Thewhitenight99]

same here, i occasionally use it to "lower the volume" of the sounds i hear

[@oskarthompson3789]

Potential gainz?!

[@Tensho_C]

@David van Ecke holy shit! i this should be a sexuality LMAO

[@iandolfi5813]

@David van Ecke wait is that seriously a thing??

[@bobobo1618]

The ear drum size vs. thing-at-the-end-of-the-bone-lever size part reminds me of hydraulics, where you apply pressure across something of one surface area, it's transmitted through a fluid to something of another surface area and you get a proportional advantage (or disadvantage). Same concept used for construction equipment like diggers and stuff.

[@haydonwolfe7536]

Can anyone else just make their ears do the “rumbly sound” i’ve been makin my ears do that since i was little tmyk

[@carlospnt]

I can,when I try to explain it to my friends they say I'm crazy 😂

[@clockworkkirlia7475]

I have to close my eyelids or defocus my eyes to do it, but yeah!

[@Unknown-pi6wi]

I can do it

[@MarinusMakesStuff]

Just wanted to say I'm really happy that you start about understanding something intuitively because most of the time that's what I do and then I have to sit through an explanation of something I intuitively already understood. Maybe I don't know the exact terms, but in a lot of ways one can already understand how something works by intuition. It's a great skill to nourish and you can cherry pick the bits of information you really want to deepen your understanding of. Thanks for not under or over estimating your crowd :)

[@matthewwilkes6162]

"Do you need a VPN?" No.

[@BongoBaggins]

Nobody does. HTTPS exists.

[@lucianodebenedictis6014]

Remember when everyone was going against nordvpn on any video it was in?

[@1Hippo]

True, i always say: "if you have to ask then you don't need a VPN". Also encrypted DNS (DoT and DoH) is now quite well supported, rather use that if you are worried about leaking domains. Actually using a VPN can even reduce the privacy, because the VPN provider acts per design like a man in the middle and is therefore able to capture all traffic. NordVPN attracted multiple times attention for their questionable practices, especially regarding security and privacy, i would not trust them. Running wordpress without HTTPS is btw always a bad idea even with a VPN, because at the endpoint it is not encrypted, so anyone after them can again see everything, that just shifts the problem... Since Let's encrypt there is really no excuse, most hosters enable HTTPS for free these days.

[@louiserocks1]

I need vpn because in my country all forms of porn/nsfw content is blocked but I just use a free app

[@user-cf8wl9hk2q]

Not even for torrenting?

[@indyola1]

Great explanation of impedance matching and reflections caused by impedance mismatch. Remember that impedance is resistance to a vibration, not a static pressure, and is very dependant on frequency.

[@rickmeeker5713]

Easily my favorite video of yours. I never realized how much I didn't know about the middle ear. Thank you!

[@ShalK423]

One of the best science/info shows on KZbin. I just love your videos so much. You explain things so well! Wish you were my science teacher back in school.

[@Luchoedge]

8:15 HUH! I wondered about that rumble since I was Little! I supposed it had something to do with muscle tension and their vibrations, but I didn't knew about the specific muscle! Great stuff!

[@Bananeisafree]

You never cease to educate, entertain and amaze. Thank you for your work !

[@turbo2ltr]

Wow, thank you. I've always wondered why I would feel my ears "reflex" any time I clipped my fingernails. I would hear something in my ear a few milliseconds after the "click" from the nail cutter. I didn't know there was a protection muscle in there but that's exactly what it felt like. And now I know.

[@xXDarQXx]

This is the most interesting talk about ears I've ever heard. Thank you, just thank you so much.

[@dorbie]

That tensor timpani muscle description is fascinating, I've experienced this (not as you described) and always wondered what it was. If I am listening to loud music on headphones and turn it off. I can feel this relaxation effect in my ear. There's an accompanying sound (but not really a sound) sensation but it is pretty unique. The sensation is of something relaxing that you never realized was tense. There's nothing else quite like it. I also hear a rumbling when I scrunch my face that is not the same, I wonder if this muscle is more than just full on or off.

[@Scrogan]

Impedance matching is a fascinating topic. The electronic analog of your lever would be something like a T or Π matching network. But because you’re dealing with reactive impedances in a matching network, you can counteract any inductance or capacitance of your load our source just by adjusting the values a little. In the mechanical analog, that would be having a lever with elasticity or inertia in order to reflect absolutely none of the incident energy. Now I’m wondering if there are non-linear acoustic properties that allow for self-mixing, frequency doubling, etc. Maybe even a saser!

[@Scrogan]

Looks like SASERs exist, they were first successfully constructed in 2009. Using phonon amplification via an incredibly obscure purpose-built gain medium.

[@bazoo513]

Your "wave machine" is brilliant! Anf kudos for explaining briefly to newbies what level of privacy protection they already have, and for what they need a VPN.

[@grugspro]

7:53, I can do the ear muscle thing by breathing, opening my mouth at a certain point, and even just by moving my tongue. It is so annoying and I wish I couldn't.

[@gertboltenmaizonave2421]

Steve Mould you just broke the many years illusion I had, that almost all of your videos were shot in your home.

[@anpinfotainment7963]

Thank you for teaching me about the tensor tympani, I have voluntary control over this muscle, and it will, on rare occasions, fire without my input. So cool to learn this.

[@h7opolo]

7:52 I have manual control of my Tensor tympani muscle. You mentioned examples of involuntary activation; well, my voluntary ability allows me to effectively block external noise as I wish. This came in very handy as a kid being scolded by parents.

[@bpbpbpbpbpbp]

I’ve been trying to find out whether rumbling your ears actually was protective to your hearing for YEARS!! I guess I never knew the right words to search. Thank you!!

[@th0rkiller]

Steve, I am able to produce the rumble you described at around 8:15 at will. I don't have to change my facial muscles or yawn to make it occur. Sometimes if I don't have hearing protection I do it because it seems to dampen the outside noise slightly. I noticed I could do it when I was young and have used it to my advantage for years.

[@kzookid2051]

I've been able to rumble my ears at will since I was a kid, oh-so-many-decades-ago, by doing the same thing as when you wiggle your ears, but flexing them on the inside. The visuals in the video were very good at showing how everything's connected and work. Thanks.

[@angelemmanuelperezmuniz1474]

That reminds me that I can hear that crackling noice most of the time. I can be totally relaxed too.

[@treufuss-yt]

10:30 If you login on a website without ssl, a VPN does barely help with that. As you correctly explain, the traffic is decrypted at the VPN endpoint and from there you password and any other information travels on unencrypted. So every server in between can still read you password.

[@Bebeu4300]

I really appreciate, that you properly explain what a VPN does, instead of just saying "protect your data" and the like.

[@karlkastor]

8:01 Finally someone talks about the ear rumble. I thought I was the only one.

[@bryandraughn9830]

I've read about some kind of nerves that the brain uses to send signals back towards the ears to kind of " amplify the input " or something like that. I would like to learn more about this. Great video man!

[@qwertyasdf66]

8:21 I've deliberately done that to try to drown out loud or annoying, since I was a kid. I always understood it was the muscles clenching but didn't know it was actually helping in any way.

[@ThatJay283]

9:20 - All HTTP web traffic will be encrypted by a VPN, but the VPN can still see everything your doing. I wouldn't trust a third party with passwords when using HTTP, just avoid those websites or use another password you don't care about as much (or a password manager!). Using an VPN for passwords is just creating a single point for all your passwords to be seen by the VPN company, or if the vpn was hacked (eg if someone got bribed to steal passwords from HTTP connections, and HTTP websites that ask for passwords are very rare, and you shouldn't tryst them anyway in 2020).

[@tekcirk]

and the traffic isn't encrypted once it leaves the VPN provider's network, so it's still being sent in clear text.

[@CaptainCandycorn]

You just indirectly answered a question I have had for many years and im having like a eureka moment right now. Every now and then I will hear/feel a sensation in my ear that sounds like the eardrum twitching and making a very strange noise. Its a very hard thing to describe but now I realized it is the inner ear muscle having a little twitching episode, just as many other muscles in the body do. Furthermore, I noticed it mainly happens when my diet is lacking and I am not getting a balance of nutrients needed for optimal muscle function.

[@moiquiregardevideo]

Is the noise when clenching the jaws really coming from the tiny muscle in the middle ear? My understanding was this muscle was part of the autonomous nerve system, so using white, slow muscle. The cochlea has 3 times more "motor" cilias" than "sensory" cilias. The motor cilias are located on the other side of the membrane. The sound enter the oval window and travel toward the center of the "escargot", exciting sensor cilais on it way. Then, the sound cross thru a hole at the center and travel on the other side of the membrane, this time, the side where the motor cilias, 3 times more abundant, are located. Finally, the round window allow the incomprehensible liquid to move in/out as the wave is pushing out/in on the oval window, out of phase by 180 degrees. If you read this comment, I bet you will want to know more: what the heck is the purpose of motor cilias? And if you apply your usual doubt about supposed consensus, you may be the first the correctly describe how the cochlea really works. PS: it is a spectrum analyzer, extracting frequency information in part of the official frequency range of 20 Hz to 20 KHz.

[@Maniac8275]

Audiologist here: 1) There are 3 mechanical advantages involved in the middle ear-you only mentioned 2. And, in fact, more “advantage” is derived from the “buckling” effect of the tympanic membrane-a.k.a. Eardrum (~10 dB) than the lever advantage (~5-6 dB). And 2) the response to loud sounds is from the stapedial muscle-NOT the tensor tympani. That’s why the response to loud noise is called the stapedial reflex.

[@iamdave84]

Having learned this from you, I know need to re-watch the video to wrap my head around what you mean

[@hgbugalou]

Crazy! I am one of the seemingly many people (from reading the comments) that can voluntarily trigger that muscle. I have often used this 'skill' to lessen the noise when something really loud is going on and I can't just plug my ears for whatever reason. I had no idea it actually protected my ears though!

[@Tensho_C]

8:06 is it normal that I can rumble those muscles on command? I always thought everybody could use that to fight changes in airpressure

[@NotQuiteFirst]

Given that half the comments are people saying they can do it on command, I guess it is pretty normal.

[@chrisprenmusic]

I’ve always had conscious control over those tenser timpani muscles. I didn’t know what they were until now but I can both create that rumbling and protect my earring whenever I want. No face scrunching necessary. Thanks!

[@jeadennotfound]

Omg I've always heard that rumbling in my ears and I can force it majority of the time but I never knew what it was or how to explain it. Thank you for solving a riddle that's perplexed me for so long now.

[@Judesmood118]

Never heard it explained like this. Incredible demos!

[@Tony-nl6pf]

This is insane, I love your videos so much. Levers are one of my most favorite concepts and who knew it would be in my body.

[@dash8brj]

Looks like theres quite a few of us who can volentarily control our tensor tympani muscles, me too. The roar is akin to the sound of a jet aircraft after landing with reversers deployed, although obviously not as loud. So in reference to the facts presented on this video, eardrum and bones = preamp, and tensor tympani = attenuator pad, and cochlea = ADC :)

[@iamdave84]

That's the best description of the sound that I've heard

[@iamdave84]

Well, read not heard I suppose 🤔

[@SirRebrl]

I'm going to watch this video later, just wanted to stop by and share that you have such a distinctive manner of speaking that I automatically read the title of the video the way you'd say it. I find that entertaining. It's a good branding element, your voice being very particular to you that way.

[@SanneBerkhuizen]

I always wondered what the dumble sound was. Thanks you very much for explaining this.

[@naughtyhorses]

Brilliant video, I cannot believe that I have lived so long and never wondered about where that rumble comes from when I yawn. Thanks