The ear does not automatically decompose sounds into their sinusoidal components

Evidence

Ohm’s 1843 paper was unfortunately simultaneously pompous and muddled, as if to mask a measure of self-doubt. Helmholtz saw the significance of the paper more clearly than its author. Summing up what Ohm had done, Helmholtz said, “the proposition enunciated and defended by G. S. Ohm must be regarded as proven, viz. that the human ear perceives pendular [sinusoidal] vibrations alone as simple tones.” This is true, and of unsurpassed importance in sound perception. But then Helmholtz reveals his own obsession with the human ear as a Fourier analyzer by continuing “and resolves all other periodic motions of the air into a series of pendular vibrations, hearing the series of simple tones which correspond with these simple vibrations” (emphasis is Helmholtz’s). It is true that all periodic motions of the air can be resolved mathematically into a series of pendular vibrations, but only the best, trained, or prompted ears can parse the sound into its partials,, and then only some of the partials. Even possessors of such ears normally listen holistically rather than performing the harder work of “hearing out” individual partials. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 2048

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies Ohm’s law of hearing as the claim that ears perceive sinusoidal vibrations alone as simple tones.
• XREF: This connects to how the inner ear operates as a frequency analyzer via the basilar membrane, standard auditory physiology.
• ADDENDUM: Relevant to the general theme of how perception filters physical reality, complementary to the soundscape book’s signal/ground distinction.