Body & Soul1 min ago
Frequency range for human ear
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into google, and got this:
http://www.epd.gov.hk/epd/noise_education/web/ENG_EPD_HT ML/m1/intro_3.html
...and here is a similar one:
http://i2.tinypic.com/rkanes.jpg
My answer from body and soul:
Normal hearing range for children/adolescents is around 20Hz to 20,000Hz. As you get older the hair cells in the cochlea get damaged or destroyed - this usually affects the hair cells that deal with high frequency sounds first ( as they are neared the "entrance" to the cochlea ). So most people will lose these high frequency sounds first. I test hearing for a living - and it is not very uncommon for people in their 80's to not hear anything above 6,000Hz.
My father-in-law has quite bad noise damage to his hearing - and he has normal (less than 20dBHL threshold) hearing to 4,000Hz - and then no measurable hearing at higher frequencies.
N.B. the description of cochlear function in the first paragraph is VERY simplified.