Mondo Knows Facts
The smallest bone in the human body is inside the ear
Measuring just three millimetres long the stapes bone helps transmit sound vibrations
Located in the middle ear, the stapes or stirrup bone is smaller than a grain of rice. It measures approximately 3 millimetres by 2.5 millimetres and works alongside two other tiny bones to transmit acoustic vibrations from the eardrum to the inner ear.
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Tags: bones, ear, hearing
The smallest bone in the human body is inside the ear: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Measuring just three millimetres long the stapes bone helps transmit sound vibrations. The figure is taken from Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a human body fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Human Body shelf, one of 1,090 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.