{"id":1380,"date":"2024-09-16T14:01:44","date_gmt":"2024-09-16T14:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/?p=1380"},"modified":"2024-09-16T14:01:44","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T14:01:44","slug":"ears-are-weird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.allendowney.com\/blog\/2024\/09\/16\/ears-are-weird\/","title":{"rendered":"Ears Are Weird"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In a previous article<\/a>, I looked at 93 measurements from the ANSUR-II dataset and found that ear protrusion is not correlated with any other measurement. In a followup article<\/a>, I used principle component analysis to explore the correlation structure of the measurements, and found that once you have exhausted the information encoded in the most obvious measurements, the ear-related measurements are left standing alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have a conjecture about why ears are weird: ear growth might depend on idiosyncratic details of the developmental environment — so they might be like fingerprints<\/a>. Recently I discovered a hint that supports my conjecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Veritasium video<\/a> explains how we locate the source of a sound. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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