Many a medical student has prized his set of earbones, proof he was a careful dissector. The ear bones have a very special function There are the malleus, the incus, and the stapes. The way they are articulated takes the wide weak movements of the eardrum, and reduces their amplitude but increases the power to make the stapes (little stirrup) whose footplate fits into the oval window of inner ear, move powerfully enough to move the fluid waves to go up and around the helix, stimmulating nerves at different heights to produce sensation of different tones. A manifestation of the Almighty at his most magnificent.