If the cabin inside an airplane is pressurized why do my ears pop?
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The cabin pressurization at cruising altitude isn’t set to the same as the air pressure at ground level, it’s set to that of about a few thousand feet of altitude.
The pressure inside the cabin does change, just not drastically. But there are pockets deeper inside your ear where air gets trapped at a different pressure (either ground pressure when you’re taking off or the higher altitude pressure when landing), and to relieve that difference you need to “pop” your ears and let the air equalize. Chewing gum and yawning and all the other tricks help open up those pockets to equalize the pressure, too.
The cabin isn’t pressurized to sea level; that would put way too much pressure on the plane when it’s flying at 30,000 feet above sea level. Instead, the cabin is pressurized to match approximately 6,000 feet above sea level, which is comfortably breathable by people. However, there’s still a pressure difference, so you feel your ears pop.
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