How does a ear trumpet work?

Answer 1

An ear Trumpet is actually somewhat like a stethoscope that a doctor uses to make it easier to hear your heart or fluid in your lungs. The stethoscope channels more sound into the doctors ear. An ear trumpet is even similar to putting your cupped hand behind your ear in order to better hear someone talking from a distance. Try it. You can see the sound seems louder when you put your hand, cupped, around the back side of your ear. Take your hand down and the "loudness" decreases. Hard of hearing folks often do this very thing. Some animals have vastly larger ears than humans. These large ears collect more of the sound (like your cupped hand did) and directs MORE sound into the ear canal. This is basically what an ear trumpet is doing. A number of animals have ears that they can even rotate forward or backward, which allows them to better determine which direction the sound is coming from, a distinct advantage if a predator is sneaking up from the rear. Since ear trumpets work similarly to the above examples - in other words a relatively large bell or cup shaped end running to a smaller opening that is place in the ear - the larger bell collects a great deal more sound than the smaller ear and then the sound is directly channeled into the ear canal - making it easier for the person to hear. In that manner of speaking, yes, an ear trumpet does make a sound louder for the person using the device. What it is actually doing is COLLECTING more sound and channeling it more directly into the ear. The end result is a more understandable sound for the user.

Answer 2

An ear trumpet focuses all the available sound in its capture area of the horn into on location at he base of the it. Just like cupping your hand behind your ear.

Answer 3

How does an ear trumpet work? Well it is just a better version of the pinna. Instead of capturing a few sound waves, it captures more through its hole on the end.