Air-to-fluid impedance mismatch would reflect most sound energy without matching

Evidence

The problem of impedance matching from air to cochlear fluid is profound—a difference of impedance in the thousands. We discovered early in this book that there is precious little energy in faint sounds, or even loud ones for that matter, and none to waste if faints sounds are to be heard. We don’t want 99% of the sound energy incident on the tympanum to be reflected by an impedance mismatch with air. Yet the tympanum is the first in line in a path that leads to a fluid-filled cavity. Quite an engineering problem! — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 1939

Categorization

• QUESTION: What mechanism does the ear use to overcome this impedance mismatch? This point sets up the middle-ear lever and area-ratio solution — worth chasing across the ear’s anatomy.
• DEFINE: Introduces the concept of acoustic impedance mismatch as an engineering problem at the air-fluid boundary.