Eshach [1, 2] argues that if one goal of science
education is to advance students’ learning about
their own world and about ‘useful knowledge’
(see Layton [3] esp. chapter 5), then the subject of
sound, which might provide answers to questions
relating to everyday phenomena such as whether
one can hear sound in water, why is it dangerous
to listen to loud music, or how does a physician’s
stethoscope work, should be an essential
component of science curricula. To enable physics
teachers the necessary background to deal
with such everyday-related physics problems,
it is important to provide them with the physics
knowledge underlying these phenomena. This
paper presents a novel explanation of the amplification
mechanism of a stethoscope, suitable for
high school level.