Eli5: how come tears don’t sting our eyes even though they are salty?

Question

Eli5: how come tears don’t sting our eyes even though they are salty?

In: 1

Answer 1

Tears are not particularly salty, I think what you’re used to as “salty water” would be ocean water, which is several times saltier than anything we could tolerate.

The eyes themselves are already full of “tears”, so they’re used to the salt level roughly in tears, and actually having tears run down your face, just happens when they produce more water than they already had/needed.