Why do ears pop?

Answer 1

Air pressure. As you increase altitude, air pressure decreases. The pressure within your body then attempts to equalize the pressure and the ear drum membrane is very sensitive to changes in pressure because it thin.

Answer 2

Ears pop while going up in an elevator because the altitude is increasing. It can be painful if your ears don't pop so an easy way to do so is to hold your nose and blow to equalize the pressure.

Answer 3

It's because you are very high above,so the air above is different from below.Have you ever been in the car and you are by the mountains?Well,the mountains that are very high,cause your ears to pop or get plugged.The skyscraper is the same because you are at a high level because you are not standing on the ground.You're up in the sky.

Answer 4

Earth's atmosphere only goes to a certain height above the planet's surface. Therefore, when you increase your altitude, you have less air pushing down on you. That's a pressure decrease.

You have pressure inside your body, too. In particular, the pressure inside your head is normally the pressure outside, too. However, since your head doesn't exactly have holes in it (it wouldn't be very good at keeping things like your brain safe if it did), when you increase your altitude, the pressure inside your head is greater than the pressure outside (because it decreases as you increase altitude).

Because of this pressure decrease, the pressure in your head pushes against your eardrums (the easiest place for pressure to escape your nasal cavity, the primary pressure center in the skull). That's why your ears hurt as you go up. Your ears 'pop' as a result of the pressure leaving your skull, allowing what's known as equalization. This simply means that the pressure inside is the same as the outside.

That's the long answer as to why your ears pop.

Answer 5

Changes in air pressure that create a difference between that in the ears and the pressure in the Eustachian tubes. Your ears "pop" when the two are equalizing again.

Answer 6

It is the air pressure around you changing, and the ear's inner parts take a while to adjust.

Answer 7

Your ears pop in planes because the air high above the surface of earth is less dense than air near the surface has all the air above it pushing it down.

Answer 8

Because the air pressure is getting heavier so your ears pop.