• Question: Why do your ears pop when you change altitude?

    Asked by oli97 to Antonia, Douglas, Hugh, Matt, Tom on 15 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Antonia Hamilton

      Antonia Hamilton answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      because the atmospheric pressure changes and the pressure in your inner ear doesn’t match up any more

    • Photo: Matthew Hurley

      Matthew Hurley answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      The air pressure is different at different altitudes. The ear adjusts to the pressue by air moving in and out of the middle ear (through the eustacian tubes). This makes the pop!

    • Photo: Hugh Roderick

      Hugh Roderick answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      There is air filled space inside our ears that is usually at the same pressure as air around us. However, when we change altitude the air pressure around us changes, but the air space inside our ears can’t change pressure easily as it is a confined space so the pop we get as we change altitude is when the difference in pressure is big enough to either force air out of the space in our ears as we increase altitude or force air into that space as we decrease altitude.

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