Is it true that vibrations of the tympanic membeane?

Question

convert arriving sound waves into mechanical movement????

Answer 1

Yes, it is. There is a system, with many bones acting as levers that amplify the vibrations (that are already mechanical movements, but very small) to somehow "bigger" movements, that are then converted to electrical signals that are sent to the brain. It's a beautiful system!

You can see more details in: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ear#Middle_...