hear hear!

i had forgotten to mute my lappy and it did its PING in a class today. all heads turned towards me. not that it mattered [:P]!

but i wondered, how exactly are we able to pinpoint the direction of sound. seems this is called localization of sound and has been the subject of a lot of research. the barn owl has been researched a lot because of its extraordinary hearing abilities.

most of the judgment of direction takes place because of the delay in the reception of sound by both the ears [ the reason why we have two ears]. it's called the intra-aural delay [iud]. however, for sounds originating behind the head or in front of it, the shape of the pinna plays a role in helping us find out where the sound came from.

so much for the spirit of enquiry [:P]!