Answer to Question #161861 in Physics for PAVITRA

Question

Certain animals rely on strong sense of hearing for survival. Those animals are identified to have large earlobes for channeling of sound waves. Explain how this feature in animals helps increase the sensitivity of the animal’s hearing. 

Answer 1

The large earlobes allow such animals transmitting more sounds to the eardrums. If they just had a hole and an eardrum behind, the amount of sound they could receive would be proportional to the area of the hole. Thus, larger area allows 'catching' more sounds.