What does a stethescope do?

Answer 1

What Is a Stethoscope

• A stethoscope is a medical device for listening to sounds inside the body. On one end of the stethoscope is a diaphragm, a vibrating membrane designed to pick up sound. The diaphragm is connected to a hollow, air-filled tube. That tube splits in two and leads to earpieces, which the doctor wears. The stethoscope can be placed against the patient's chest to listen to her breath or heartbeat, or against the lower abdomen to listen to the intestines.

How a Stethoscope Works

• The doctor holds the stethoscope against the patient's body, usually to listen to the breath or heartbeat. When the heart beats or the lung fills with air, it produces small sound vibrations through the body. These vibrations are picked up and amplified by the diaphragm. The sound passes into the tube, which transfers it into the doctor's earpieces. There are also electrical stethoscopes, which use a kind of microphone to pick up and amplify the sound. Because electrical stethoscopes can lose or distort parts of the sound, however, most doctors use the acoustic version.