Form 2

Chapter 1
The world through
our senses

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 1.1 Sensory Organs and Their Functions

• A sensory organ is an organ that enables the body to respond to

stimuli.

• A stimulus is a change in the surroundings that can be detected by

the sensory organs.

• The five sensory organs are eye, ear, nose, tongue and skin.

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• The ability of the sensory organs to detect stimuli is
called senses.
Sensory organ Sense Stimuli

Eye Sight Light

Ear Hearing Sound

Nose Smell Chemical in air

Tongue Taste Chemical in foods

Skin Touch Pressure, heat, cold,

touch

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 Pathway from stimulus to response.
Stimulus
Response

Receptor in
sensory organ Effectors
(muscle)

Sensory Motor
nerves Brain nerves
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1.2 Sense of Touch

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 1.2 Sense of Touch
• The skin is a sensory organ which responds to the
sense of touch.
• There are five types of receptors in the skin.

Receptor Stimuli (sensitive to)

Cold receptors Cold substances

Heat receptors Heat

Pain receptors Pain

Pressure receptors Large pressure

Touch receptors Small pressure (touch )

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• The sensitivity of the skin depends on
(a) the thickness of epidermis
(b) the number of receptors present

• Fingertip and neck are more sensitive .

• Elbow , knee and back side are not so

sensitive to touch.

Braille letters are specifically designed symbols for

stimulating the fingertips, which allows blind people to
read
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1.3 Sense of Smell

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1.3 Sense of Smell
• Mucus is produced to help keep the
receptors moist.

• When you inhale, the chemicals

from the food enter the nasal cavity
and dissolve in the mucus.

• The smell receptors are stimulated.

• The impulses from the smell

receptors are sent to the brain by
the olfactory nerves for
interpretation.
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• When we catch a cold, too much mucus is
produced and this makes the receptors less
sensitive.

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Cold = flu (selsema 感冒)
感冒
 1.4
Sense of
Taste

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 1.4 Sense of Taste

• The tongue contains many taste

buds. The taste buds are the taste
receptors.

• There are four types of taste

receptors.

• These receptors are sensitive to

sweet, salty
sweet salty, sour and bitter tastes.
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How do you taste?
• The taste buds are able to detect
the taste of the food when the
food is dissolved in saliva.

• The taste receptors will be

stimulated and impulses are
produced.

• The impulses are sent to the brain

for interpretation.

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1.5 Sense of Hearing

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 1.5 Sense of Hearing

• The ear is a sensory organ for hearing and

balancing.

• The car can be

divided into
three sections:
i) outer ear,
ii) middle ear and
iii) inner ear.

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 How do we hear ?
1. The pinna collects sound 2. The eardrum begins to
waves and directs them vibrate and the
into the auditory canal vibrations are
and to the eardrum. transferred to the
ossicles

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3. The ossicles magnify the vibrations and pass them
to the oval window.

4. The oval window transmits the vibrations to the

cochlea.

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5. The cochlea converts the vibrations into impulses.

6. The impulses are sent by the auditory nerves to the

brain for interpretation.

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1.6 Sense of Sight

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 How do we see ?
• When you look at an object, the light rays from the object enter the
eye.
• The light rays are refracted by cornea, aqueous humour, lens and
vitreous humour.
• An image is formed on the retina. Impulses are produced and are
sent to the brain by the optic nerves..

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 1.7 Light and Sight
• Light is a form of energy and light
travels in straight lines. This causes
the formation of eclipses.

• Light cannot travel through opaque

objects. Thus, shadows are formed.

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 Light can be reflected
• When light hits a surface, some of it bounces off or is
reflected.
• Mirrors are very shiny surfaces designed to reflect nearly
all the light that hits them.

When you look in a flat

mirror, you see a reflection
of yourself which is the
same size as you but back
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to front.
 Light can be refracted
• When light travels from one medium to another of
different density, its speed changes.
• This causes the light ray to bend.
• This is known as refraction.

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 Effect of light refraction
a) The swimming pool appears to be shallower
than its actual depth.

b) A straw in a glass of water appears to be

bent.

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 Vision defects
There are three defects of vision:
(a) Short-sightedness ( Rabun jauh 近视)
can see near objects clearly but not distant objects.

(b) Long-sightedness ( Rabun dekat 远视)

can see far objects clearly but not near objects.

(c) Astigmatism (Rabun silau 散光)

both far and near objects are blur.

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 Short-sightedness Long-sightedness Astigmatism

can see near objects can see far objects clearly both far and near objects
clearly are blur

The images of distant The images of nearby Caused by irregular

objects are formed objects are formed surface of the cornea.
in front of the retina. at the back of retina.

Using diverging using converging (convex) Using cylindrical lenses.

(concave) lens. lens.

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 Testing astigmatism ( text pg 23)

Normal eye Have an astigmatism

Close your right eye and hold this page about one arm’s length
from your left eye.
Look at the figure .

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Optical illusion

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 Optical illusion

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 • Sometimes our brains do not accurately
interpret what we see.

• This phenomenon is known as optical illusion.

It's amazing how our brain works.

This should be proof enough, we don't always see what we think we see.
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Text book pg 24

Blind spot

• This boy is chasing a butterfly - time to end this madness.

• Close your left eye and look at the boy with your right eye. Then move your
head closer to or further from the screen until ... the butterfly disappears !
• You can't see the butterfly because it's exactly in front of your blind spot, the
place where the optical nerves enter the eye.

When images fall on the blind spot, they cannot be seen.

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Stereoscopic (binocular) vision
• Stereoscopic vision is a vision
involving both eyes.
eyes
• Humans and most predators have
stereoscopic vision.

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Advantages of stereoscopic vision
(a) Able to see objects in three
dimensions.

(b) Able to estimate the

distance accurately.

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 Monocular vision
• Monocular vision is a vision
involving only one eye.
eye.

• Animals of prey normally have

monocular vision.

• Monocular vision has a wider

scope of vision.
vision

• This enables the prey to detect

the presence of predators easily

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The various devices used to overcome the
limitations of sight include
• microscope,
• magnifying glass,
• telescope,
• binoculars,
• ultrasound scanning device,
• X-ray and
• periscope.

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 1.8 Sound and Hearing
• Sound is produced when objects vibrate.

• A medium is needed for the sound to travel.

• Hence, sound cannot travel through vacuum

vacuum.

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 Sound can be reflected
• Sound can be reflected by smooth and hard surfaces
and it is absorbed by soft and rough surfaces.

• Echo is the reflected sound. Echo can be used to:

(a) estimate the depth of sea
(b) identify a school of fish
(c) detect the presence of submarines

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 Hearing defects

There are two major types of

(a) The first type involves the outer and middle ear.
For example, the earwax can block sound waves and cause
temporary loss of hearing.

(b) The second type involves damage to the inner ear.

For example, toxins are produced as a result of diphtheria or
scarlet fever. These toxins damage the cochlea and cause
permanent loss of hearing.

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 Protect our ears

Don’t do this !!

Use earplug or earmuffs

Loud music
cause hearing loss
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 How to overcome hearing loss ?

Hearing aid Surgery Artificial cochlea

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 Human hearing limit
• Our ears can only detect sound of frequencies
between 20 Hz and 20000 Hz.Hz
• Sounds with frequencies 20 000 Hz and
• above are ultrasonic sounds. These sounds can
be detected by animals such as bats, cats and
dolphins.

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 Stereophonic hearing
• Stereophonic hearing is hearing with both ears.
• Stereophonic hearing helps us to determine the
direction of sound.

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 1.9 Stimuli and Responses in Plants
• Plants respond to
stimuli like light,
water , touch and
gravity.

• Different parts of the

plant respond to
different stimuli.

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• There are two types of responses:
(a) Tropism
Tropism is the directional growth of the part of a plant in
response to an external stimulus.

(b) Nastic movements

The direction of the response is not dependent on the
direction of the stimulus

Venus fly trap Pitcher

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 Types of tropisms

(a) Phototropism : (b) Geotropism : (c) Hydrotropism : (d) Thigmotropism:

Response Response Response Response
to light to gravity to water to touch

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• When the part of the
plant grows towards
the stimulus, it is
called positive Shoot is
tropism. negative
geotropism

• When the part of the

plant grows away Roots are
from the stimulus, it is positive
geotropism .
called negative
tropism.
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