If we have a source, like a speaker, but with no sound and only the vibrations, and this vibrations were transported to a surface which you can put your elbows on it and then put your hands to your ears, would you be able to hear a sound?
[Physics] Can you hear vibrations through your bones
acousticsbiophysicsperceptionvibrations
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The beats are audible at lower frequencies because your ears do in fact pick up phase information, but only at these lower frequencies.
When a sound enters our ear, we magnify it via mechanical oscillations of bones and hydraulic effects, ultimately causing vibration in a thin film in our inner ear called the basilar membrane. Different sections of the basilar membrane will vibrate in response to different tones. The basilar membrane is connected to thousands of small hairs, themselves connected to mechanically-sensitive ion gates. Oscillations of these hair then trigger the ion gates. The ion gates send electrical impulses down neurons to our brains.
Empirically, it is observed that these nerve impulses almost always begin at the peak amplitude of a vibration of the basilar membrane. Thus, if our two ears receive sound with different phase, they will fire nerve impulses at different times, and our brains will have access to phase information.
An interesting demonstration of this was given by Lord Raleigh in 1907. He theorized that phase difference detection between the ears was a key component to our ability to localize sound. When Raleigh played two tuning forks that were slightly out of tune, so that the phase oscillated, his found that human perception of the location of the sound oscillated from the left to the right of the listener's head.
At high frequencies, we lose phase information. This is because of uncertainties in the exact time of arrival of a nerve impulse. A typical nerve impulse lasts several milliseconds, so above 1000 Hz the uncertainty in arrival time becomes comparable to the frequency itself, meaning we lose phase information. It turns out that we mostly lose the ability to localize sound in the range 1000 - 3000 Hz. Above 3000 Hz, different physiological mechanisms related to the "shadow" of your head allow us to localize sound again.
Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_potential
The information about Rayleigh's experiment and firing at the peak of oscillations is from chapter 5 of "The Science of Sound" by Rossing, Wheeler, and Moore.
The most likely explanation for the hissing noise you hear is ambient noise from around you , That is increased in amplitude according to the dimensions of the resonant cavity (your cupped hands ) so theoretically if you are in a real soundproof room this will not work , if you change the cavity size and distance of your cupped hands from your ears you can hear a slightly different pitched hiss . does that rings a bell ??
Try this take an empty preferably a thin walled metal mug (though a cold drink bottle will also work fine ) and some water , sit in a silent place keep the mug on a table now you must be able to hear the same hiss when you bring your ears close to the mug now pour in some water and try to hear again the pitch of the hiss(noise) must change for different levels of water in the mug ,The level/pitch of the sound will also vary depending on the angle and distance the cup is from your ear if it does it can prove that resonant cavity is the reason for this hiss sound.
Similar explanation goes for sea shells also seashells captures this ambient noise, which resonates inside the shell . The size and shape of the shell therefore has some effect on the sound you hear. Different shells sound different because different shells accentuate different frequencies.
Best Answer
Such a thing is generally possible. You can test this really easy: take a tuning fork without resonator (so really just the fork itself), hit the desk, hold the fork in the air and listen. You will probably hear almost no sound. Now plug your ears, do the same and press the fork root against your forehead. You will see (hear :-) ).
Practically, that's a big issue when diagnosing someone's ear (that singular is on purpose!). Cause you can hear the sound via the skull bones vibration at surprisingly low sound pressure level by the healthy ear and diagnosis of the invalid ear is therefore distorted.