Does your ears pop when you’re flying on an airplane? one third of all passengers will experience this ear pain at least once.

So, Why do your ears pop in airplanes?

Rapid changes in air pressure inside the aircraft cause the air pocket inside the ear to expand during takeoff and contract during descent, stretching the eardrum. To equalize pressure, air must enter or escape through the Eustachian tube.

Some people experience ear discomfort, pain, temporary hearing loss. This condition is called aerotitus and one third of all passengers will experience this ear pain at least once.

The air pocket inside the middle ear expand during takeoff and landing and this stretches the eardrum. Air must enter and escape through the Eustachian tube in the ear to normalize the ear drum. The Eustachian tube sometimes has difficulty keeping up with the rapid changes in air pressure during takeoff and landing.

What You Can Do

• Try Swallowing - Swallowing forces the eustachian tube to open and forces your ears to pop.
• Chew gum.
• Give your baby a pacifier or bottle.

Airplanes cabin pressurization is the active pumping of air into an aircraft cabin to increase the air pressure within the cabin. Planes are pressurized as cruising altitudes are freezing and lack sufficient oxygen to breathe inside.

During rare instances the aircraft may lose cabin pressurization at high altitude. Forcing the plane into a rapid descent to 10,000 ft after a sudden loss of pressure is a standard emergency procedure. 10,000 ft is an altitude that can be tolerated without supplemental oxygen.

Wherein there is a loos in cabin pressure, from a medical point of passengers are in the risk of lack of oxygen which is compensated by the oxygen masks.

To reduce the amount of expansion and contraction that the fuselage must endure (and reduce metal fatigue) the cabins are usually regulated for an equivalent of 8,000 ft of altitude.

Cabins are pressurized by an environmental control system (ECS) using air provided by compressors or bleed air. Some aircraft, such as the Boeing 787, use electric compressors to provide pressurization. Control systems maintain air pressure equivalent to 2,500 m (8,000 ft) or below, even during flight at altitudes above 13,000 m (43,000 ft).

Other than it’s reputation as predators, Sharks can also save lives by giving early warnings of storms.

British research has found that they can sense minute changes in air pressure and head for the safety of deeper waters when a storm is brewing. A drop in air pressure - a sign of imminent bad weather - is mirrored in the pressure of the water.

“The shark’s inner ear is very similar to ours; if we go up in an aeroplane our ears pop due to the equalisation of pressures and the same thing goes on with a shark,” said Miss Lauren Smith, 24, a marine biology student, who has carried out further research into the phenomenon in the Bahamas at Aberdeen University.

“Juvenile sharks live in shallow coastal waters along the coastline and if you had monitoring stations or underwater cameras you could observe them migrating to deeper waters,” she added.